Zack's Adventurous Life
by ChristianDragon
Summary: An adventurous Umbreon named Zack has always had a knack for adventure. See what adventures await him when he gets captured along with the not so normal team he's on.
1. Zack

Zack's Adventurous Life

Chapter 1: Zack

Today was just like any other day: unknown. It was always a mystery to know just what might happen on a day like this, or any other day for that matter. So many things could happen such as a Steelix trying to kill me with an Iron Tail attack or a pack of Beedrill trying to hit me with their poison attacks. I always hoped for something interesting to always happen, but lately, nothing interesting has happened.

I stretched as I woke up from where I laid from last night, walking out of my little hiding place and to a nearby lake I came across for a drink. I dipped a paw into the water and washed my face. I always liked keeping a clean and healthy body. Unless it came to battling. Then I would love to do nothing more than get a bit messy.

I continued to dip my paw into the water and clean my face, followed by the rest of my body. The water felt quite cool as the cool morning air sent a chill along my spine. I was glad it was still early in the morning, though I had to work fast before pokemon showed up and caught me cleaning my lower portion of my body.

As soon as I finished, I dipped my head down until my muzzle was touching the water and began taking a few gulps of the fresh, cool water from the lake. The desire for thirst faded as I took the last remaining gulp and pulled away, licking my lips in delight as water dripped from my muzzle.

I grinned and felt excitement racing to my heart as the cool water inside my stomach sent a tingling feeling all throughout my body. I was always looking for adventure, the drive of my excitement. Whether I found it or it found me, I had no care. I was always looking for adventure to find some excitement out of it. Sure I would come across the occasional danger, but I always managed to safely come out from it in the end, completing the drive of excitement.

I looked down into the water and watched the ripples of waves travel outward a bit before the water returned to its still calmness before I disturbed it. It was then I saw my reflection of an Umbreon staring right at me. And as I went to smile, so did the Umbreon.

Being an Umbreon was so cool. I've always wanted to be one since I was just a small Eevee kit. Even then I had the lust for adventure, always traveling out after curfew and searching for adventure wherever it may be. I was always born for adventure. I couldn't stay in one spot for too long without wanting to go out and have adventures elsewhere.

My parents were always worried over me that I would get seriously injured. I loved them just as much as they loved me, but their worry over me wouldn't stop me from doing what I loved most. Eventually my dad quit worrying and had faith that I would be all right. My mother eventually came around to not worrying also, but deep down, I still knew she worried. But what could they do? They couldn't really stop me from leaving to have my own adventures across the world.

They knew that one day adventure would call me away from them. They both understood, but my mother, being an overprotective mother still couldn't hold back the tears as I left. It was sad to leave, but I reassured them both that my adventuring would one day bring me back to them.

I came back to reality from my past flashbacks as my gaze returned to my reflection in the water. I admired myself too fully. Not only was I an adventurer, but I was also quite the dashing good-looker that went along with my adventuring. I even managed to attract a few cute females because of my good looks, but not one of them got me to settle down, not that I wanted to do so at this young age. Besides, my love for adventure was stronger than my love for females. So it just plainly didn't work out.

One other thing that made most females attracted to me was the fact that I was a bit different from all other Umbreon. Like all Umbreon, I had black fur. But it was my rings on my body that made me different. Instead of the usual yellow, my rings were blue, being that I was a bright red Eevee before my evolution. I smiled again, my reflection copying.

Suddenly, my ears pricked up upon hearing noise behind me. I break my gaze from my reflection and turn around just as a human came walking through a bush, the source of the noise. I smirked, knowing full well that he was about to eye me and try to capture me. I've battled at least a hundred trainers that wanted to battle me to try and make me their pokemon. Some of the pokemon they sent out were too weak while others were really strong. But even the strongest of pokemon couldn't beat me. I always came out on top in the end.

"Oh cool!" the human said, a bit of masculine in his voice. Obviously he was male. "A blue ringed Umbreon! I've got to catch it."

"Bring it on, human," I said with confidence as he drew out a red and white ball I've seen so many times.

"Go, Charcoal!" the boy yelled, throwing the ball high up into the air.

In a burst of light, out came to what appeared to be an orange lizard with sharp claws and a small fire on the back of its tail. I took note of the name and decided to comment on it.

"Charcoal's a pretty good name for you," I told the creature.

"Thanks," the creature said, his voice that of a male. "I have to admit that this is my first battle. My master just started not but several hours ago."

"Oh," I said. "Well I don't want to go to rough on you if you're just beginning to battle."

"Nonsense," the creature, Charcoal said. "I'd like to see you give it your all against me. Hold nothing back."

"All right then," I said. "I'll make the first move."

"Very well then," Charcoal said as I charged up a Psybeam.

"All right Charcoal," the human boy said. "Start off with an Ember attack."

"Not yet," Charcoal said, raising up a paw at the same time taking a battle position. The boy was a bit confused at what Charcoal was doing, but I wasn't going to wait around to wonder what he was up to. He told me to give it my all and that's what I'll do.

I released my Psybeam and aimed straight for the pokemon who remained standing in the position he was in. I was wondering if he was ever going to move unless he wanted my Psybeam to hit him dead on.

Then, just as the Psybeam was about to strike, Charcoal did something so amazing that left me rendered speechless. Time seemed to have slowed down as I watched the pokemon lean his body far left and bended back a bit. The Psybeam I released passed right on by him, barely missing him by an inch. The Psybeam struck the ground harmlessly behind Charcoal as the pokemon returned to his position, his feet not once moving.

"Whoa!" was all I could get out.

The human looked equally surprised. Guess he didn't know his pokemon could do such a thing. Charcoal smirked as he launched a fireball at me, snapping me out of my shock as I barely managed to dodge the incoming attack.

I began charging a black orb in my mouth to launch as a counterattack, but stopped as black smoke filled the area. My throat began to burn as I accidentally inhaled some of the smoke and began coughing. I didn't get any time to figure out what was going on before I felt a paw slam right under my muzzle, sending me sprawling onto my back.

I then felt immense heat engulf me. The heat was a bit unbearable as I felt my fur being singe. I could even smell my fur as the attack stopped, but the smoke hadn't cleared. I could feel the smoke stinging my eyes, forming tears in them.

This was an entirely different battle I've never gone up against before, which made it all the more exciting as the drive for excitement rose up within me. It was just one more challenge for me to figure out how to get out of.

"Charcoal, use Scratch!" I heard the boy yell from somewhere inside, or outside, the smoke. I didn't know exactly which way the pokemon was coming from, so I did the first thing that popped into my mind. Forming up a Shadow Ball, I launched down onto the ground, blasting me high into the air and out from smoke.

It was a lot more clearer now, though the remains of the smoke lingered in my throat and my eyes. My vision was a bit blurry, but I could still see what was going on. The boy noticed that I was in the air now and yelled out another attack.

"Now Charcoal, use Ember again!" he said. "Aim straight up!"

I looked down below me where I was standing as I saw an orange flame licker up from the smoke, engulfing my body once again in a fiery blaze. I shut my eyes and took on the attack, trying to endure as much as possible. The attack ended as I fell onto the ground.

"That was an interesting tactic you used there," I heard Charcoal tell me. "But by doing so you left yourself wide open for an attack. Not a really smart thing to do, but still interesting."

I smiled and chuckled, getting a bit of a remark out of the pokemon.

"What's funny?" he asked.

"Just the thrill of excitement," I replied as I struggled to get up.

"So I see," Charcoal said as I stood up straight, my legs wobbling. "Seems to me like you can't go on much longer."

"I'm a lot tougher than I look," I said. "I still have a bit of strength left."

"You are an interesting opponent," Charcoal said. "Tell, do you have a name?"

"It's Zack," I told him.

"Well Zack, I hate to break it to you, but I think my master has other plans," Charcoal told me.

I glanced over to the human boy who pulled out the familiar red and white ball that have been used to try and capture me.

"I'm not getting captured without a fight," I said.

"So it seems," Charcoal said as he launched another stream of fire at me.

I dodged to the side in order to evade the oncoming attack, but as I went to dodge, I heard the human yell, "Pokeball, go!"

My feet touched the ground and collapsed due to the injuries I sustained as I felt something collide with my head. A strange suction feeling pulled me in towards the ball before I was trapped within it. I began struggling to get out, not out of fear, but out of determination of a new obstacle to overcome. However, my legs were still a bit weakened in my battle with Charcoal and they quickly tired. So I gave up my struggle and allowed myself to be captured.

"Oh well," I thought. "Maybe being captured won't be so bad."


	2. Welcome

Chapter 2: Welcome

So here I was trapped inside this red and white ball I've seen so many times in my life that were used to try and capture me all the time, but luckily managed to avoid. Ironically, now I've been caught in one and have no clue what was going to happen, but knew something was bound to happen sooner or later.

As I spoke, I felt my self being freed from my imprisonment back out onto the ground I lied upon moments before. I was a bit disoriented at first, almost forgetting where I was for half a second before the scenery reminded me of where I was. I blinked a couple of times before turning about to see Charcoal walking over towards me.

"Welcome to the team, Zack," Charcoal said, holding out a paw as he stopped before me. I looked down at the out held paw and was wondering what he was going to do with when he said, "You're supposed to shake it."

I looked up at him, blinked once, and looked down at his out held paw before I raised my paw and gripped it firmly.

"Now what?" I asked.

"Now this," Charcoal said as he began to move his paw up and down. "This is a shake."

"I know," I said smiling.

"If you knew, then why did you stand there looking at it?" Charcoal asked.

"I really don't know," I replied. "Guess I'm still a bit disoriented."

"I guess that can happen to most pokemon," Charcoal said as he released my paw.

"All right, Umbreon," the human said suddenly, getting my attention. "We need a good name for you. How about Breo?"

"Breo?" I questioned to Charcoal.

"He likes naming pokemon," Charcoal told me.

"Oh," I said. "Well it's not Breo. It's Zack."

"You don't like that name?" the human asked

"How can I like it when I have a name?" I asked him, though I knew he wouldn't be able to understand me.

"Easy there, buddy," the human said, obviously thinking I was upset. "I'm just trying to find a good name for you."

"I'm not Buddy either," I said. "It's Zack."

"Man," the human said, seeming frustrated. "This is hard trying to name you. Charcoal, what do you think we should name him?"

I looked over at Charcoal who was pondering in thought. Amazing how I know so many words! So after enough pondering, Charcoal walked straight up to his- I mean our master and sliced his paw horizontally through the air before slicing it downwards at an angle before slicing it again horizontally.

"Z?" the human asked.

Charcoal nodded his head in response before raising both his paws into the air until they came to a point above his head.

"Z, A," the human said, getting the memo of the message.

Charcoal then curved his right paw in a downward slope.

"Z, A, C," the human spelled out. "Zack? You think we should name him Zack?"

"Yup," Charcoal nodded.

"Cool!" the human said. "A blue-ringed Umbreon named Zack! Thanks for the help, Charcoal."

"Any time," Charcoal said as he returned to me.

"What was that all about?" I asked him.

"I like strategizing my ideas in different ways," Charcoal said. "And in battle, I like knowing what moves my opponents have before I strike."

"So you like being a strategic pokemon," I said, getting to the point.

"You catch on fast," Charcoal said, somewhat surprised by my conclusion.

"Well gang," the human, my master, said. "We don't have further to go before we get to Viridian."

"He means the city, right?" I asked Charcoal.

"You've been there?" Charcoal asked.

"I've been around here and there," I said just as my master was taking out another red-and-white ball.

"A bit of a long trip," he said. "You guys might want to return to your pokeballs."

I groaned slightly, really not wishing to return to the imprisonment of the ball I lived in. My ears drooped which got my master to reconsider.

"You don't really want to be inside, do you?" he asked, lowering the ball a bit.

"No," I said, shaking my head.

"Well, I guess not every pokemon trainer keeps their pokemon in pokeballs, so I guess I can let you guys stay out if you want," my master said.

"It will give me some fresh air to breathe for once," Charcoal said.

"Well then gang, let's go," my master said as he walked straight into the woods with Charcoal and me following.


	3. Viridian City

Chapter 3: Viridian City

I walked happily behind my new master and friend as we traveled through the forest. I smiled happily, looking left and right at my surroundings as I walked. The day was sunny, yet in the forest, where no sun could reach, the air was very cool, yet a tad warm, which was comfortable to me. I breathed in deeply, taking in the climate of the air and exhaled happily as I continued to walk.

I looked up upon hearing a noise and watched as a Butterfree flew over us, veering off into the forest for a purpose. Perhaps it lived somewhere in there, or maybe it was just out on a morning flight. Then again, there might have been a certain favorite food it liked that was somewhere that way. Who knows? I could have gone on with my thoughts if Charcoal had not suddenly asked me a question.

"So," he said. "Mind telling me what a pokemon like you was doing there by that lake?"

"I just stopped there briefly," I answered him. "I was planning on getting up and heading out elsewhere, but now being caught seems like it's going to be fun. So what kind of things do you think we're going to be doing?"

"Well," Charcoal said. "As far as I know, we're going to be in battles and stuff. Plus, I think I heard something about battling in these gym things. I think it's some sort of gym battle. I'll have to do some digging into that."

"Cool!" I said. "So where are you from?"

"Originally I was born nearby a volcano on some sort of island or something," Charcoal told me. "I grew up learning all the information I could about the world when I was one day captured by this gray haired man in a white coat. Then I got trapped in that red-and-white ball for who knows how long before I ended up in another town called Pallet."

"How far away is that?" I asked.

"Some miles from where you were at when my master found you," Charcoal replied. "So, I'm curious to know what color Eevee you were. You don't get to see a lot of shiny pokemon these days."

"I was a red Eevee before I evolved," I replied.

"Interesting," Charcoal said as sunlight suddenly blinded me for a minute.

I stopped and blinked several times, trying to get my focus back. When it did, I immediately recognized the city I was in last before getting myself captured. I couldn't remember if that was yesterday or a week ago. But I didn't really care. I was just happy I was on the move again.

"Well guys," my master said, looking out over the city. "We've made it. And to think that it isn't even lunch time yet."

Lunch? That rang a bell in my head. I was busy focusing on many other things at once that I had completely forgotten to eat breakfast. And even as I thought about it, my stomach began growling, indicating that it was hungry. I noticed that both my master and Charcoal were staring at me, hearing my growling stomach as well.

"Guess you're pretty hungry, being that I didn't allow you to eat breakfast before capturing you, huh Zack?" my master asked, obviously looking guilty that he had done so without much thought.

"It's fine," I replied with a smile. "I didn't think much of it either."

"Well then come on," my master said. "There should be a Pokemon Center down there somewhere that will allow you to eat."

"Great!" I said. "I'm starving."

"As am I," Charcoal said as we followed our master down.

Silence occurred between the three of us as my master searched for this so called center thing. People were walking in many different directions, crossing streets, entering buildings, and strange moving objects were slowly moving past us and stopping at a cross way. Plus they were loud, but hey, it was a city. And this was everyday life in the city as I observed when I was here last.

"Aha!" my master said, stopping before a building. "Here we are. The Pokemon Center."

My eyes lit up with excitement. I was actually going inside a building. My mind began running through al the possibilities that might be going on in there and what I might run into while being in there. Charcoal went in first, scooting around our master, said master following Charcoal in, which I didn't find too strange.

I went in to follow next, but as my head went in, I stopped suddenly, something cutting off my air supply as an invisible force began squeezing at my neck. I was caught by surprise right then and tried turning my head to see just who or what was preventing me from going inside, not to mention squeezing the life out of me. Unfortunately, the pressure on my neck prevented me from doing so.

I began thinking of a strategy to rid this thing from killing me when suddenly, the pressure subsided, the invisible force squeezing at my neck disappearing. I rubbed at my now sore neck while I glanced up at my master.

"I'm so sorry Zack," he said. "I should have kept the door held open."

Ah! So that's what it was. This "door" was the reason my neck was hurting, but other than that, I felt perfectly fine.

"It's all right," I said with a smile.

My master sighed with relief saying, "I'm glad you're understanding. Come on."

I followed my master into the building, looking around in excitement. People were everywhere walking in many different directions. Some even walked behind some walls, leading them elsewhere. I, however, had stopped at a huge table looking thing and plopped myself down while continuing to look around excitedly.

I could see people staring at me with shock and surprise because of my rings. Most of them walked away, muttering something I couldn't hear, yet I probably knew that they were jealous that I belonged with an owner such as the one I'm with now.

"All right you guys," my master said, getting me to look up at him. "Time to go back into your pokeballs."

I rolled my eyes and moaned once more, flattening my ears.

"I know you don't like it," my master said. "But I promise you that when Nurse Joy is done checking your health, I'll let you both back out."

"Fine," I said reluctantly.

"It won't be that long," Charcoal said. "Just a quick check up and then you're out again."

I watched then as Charcoal was returned to his ball before I followed, returning to the imprisonment of my torture.


	4. New Friends

**Sorry for the late update. It's hard to do that when you only have a thrity minute time limit and are only allowed on the computer every once and a while. I won't abandon my stories. They'll just be a while before I find the time to update again. So enjoy the chapter!**

Chapter 4: New Friends

I grumbled irritably as I lied down in the scenery I was at before being captured, crossing my front paws and resting my head upon them. The entire scenery about me, I knew, was fake, for I felt no wind passing my body and rustling the leaves on the trees nor could I feel the warmth of the sun, even though it was high up in the sky. I sighed, scanning my eyes about, knowing that this scenery would always be here whenever I was returned inside the ball.

I got up, uncomfortable of being in here. I had to do something, otherwise I think I'd go crazy from boredom. I walked over to the fake lake and stared down at my reflection again. Then, I began giggling, looking at the miserable face that was staring right back up at me. Perhaps being stuck in here wouldn't be so bad, as long as I found something constructive to do.

I sighed and went to stare up into the fake sky, but as I craned my neck up, I suddenly snapped it back down, the soreness from the so-called door acting up. I gently placed a paw against my neck and began rubbing it. It didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would, but still, it hurt when I went to turn my head in any direction.

So, I did the only thing left I could do: I plopped myself back down and remained motionless, wondering what to do with myself when suddenly, I felt a tingling sensation spreading through my body. I shot up, startled, looking around to see if there was anyone else in here with me when I realized that the pain in my neck was gone.

"Wow!" I said, rubbing at where the sore spot was. "That was something."

I moved my head back and forth, feeling no soreness swelling up. I was going to have to ask Charcoal what had happened whenever I had gotten out. Speaking of getting out, I felt that same tugging sensation letting me loose from the fake world I was living in and was back outside my ball minutes later.

"I am never going back in there ever again," I said, turning to face my master.

"Chill out, Zack," he said. "I know you're not happy with being in there, but that's one of the few times you're going to have to live with being in there."

"Well it's boring," I said.

"Not everyone finds it boring," Charcoal said from next to me. I turned my head to see him leaning against the huge table thing with his arms crossed. "Find something constructive to do next time you're in there to preoccupy your time."

"Hey Charc," I said. "The soreness in my neck healed. How'd that happened?"

"From what I know, the nurse puts the pokeballs on a table that heals pokemon while they're inside," Charcoal told me. "That's probably how your neck got healed."

"Sweet!" I said. "So what do we do now?"

"I don't know about you," Charcoal said as he went from leaning to standing. "But I have some things to look at. I'll check in with you later."

"So wait. We're just lingering around here?" I asked.

"For however long our master chooses to stay here," Charcoal said as he walked off into the feet of people.

I turned and watched my master run up to some girl before sitting myself down and looking at my surroundings. My mind was at a blank on what to do when suddenly, I felt something smacking my tail. I craned my neck back to see what was going on back there to see a Skitty lying on its stomach, one paw swatting at my tail as I wagged it back and forth.

I found it amusing to see a Skitty trying to bat at my tail and found it even more amusing that it didn't even know I knew it was doing just that. Unfortunately, the Skitty finally noticed my presence when I felt its claws accidentally scrape across my tail, leaving a stinging mark. I yelped in surprise and jumped to all four feet.

"Oops!" the Skitty said in a young high-pitched voice. "Sworries! I didn't mean to do that."

"It's all right," I said, looking at the claw marks on my tail. "It didn't hurt that much."

"So what'cha supposed to be?" the Skitty asked me. "Some sort of blue ringed hero who throws blue rings and knocks out mean pokemon?"

"Uh... what?" I asked, having absolutely no idea what she was talking about.

"Oh I get it," the Skitty said. "You're a warrior of the night, sneaking in the shadows to save all the sugar from the mean sugar monster!"

My mind drew a blank as the Skitty burst out laughing like a maniac, rolling on the floor. I looked around, people and pokemon staring at the two of us strangely. I felt my face flush with embarrassment and I awkwardly raised a paw and scratched the back of my neck.

The Skitty must have laughed for a good five minutes before she calmed down. She got up, wiping away the tears with a paw.

"Oh I crack myself up sometimes," she said. She then stopped and studied me, a blush forming over her face. "Wow! You're handsome. I call you my pet!"

Now this was too much. That, and her leaping on me, throwing her front paws around my neck as she giggled.

"Hey Skitty," someone said. I adverted my eyes to the edge of the huge table to see a brown bear cub with a half crescent moon on its forehead. The Skitty released her hold of me and looked at the brown bear. "Calm down on the sweets."

"You can't tell me what to do, you brown chocolate bear of doom," the Skitty said in a heroic voice before running off adding a "Nya!" to what she said.

I looked after her as she ran off into the crowd before turning my attention back to the brown bear.

"Sorry about her," he said. "She's like that. Way too much sugar."

I noticed that his expression was calm, his eyes were dropped closed half-way and he looked completely relaxed.

"Uh... it's fine," I said. "I just never met anyone so crazy like that."

"Well you get use to her after a while," the brown bear said. "I'm still trying to. I'm Ted by the way."

"Zack," I said. "What are you supposed to be, if it isn't too much of me asking?"

"I'm a Teddiursa," Ted said, shrugging his shoulders. "Which is why I'm named Ted for short."

"How can you stay so calm like that around someone so hyper as her?" I asked.

"I don't really know," Ted said. "I guess I just find ways to stay calm. To be honest, it really doesn't bother me."

"Oh," I said.

"And I've noticed that you're a shiny Umbreon," Ted said. "A rare thing meeting a rare pokemon nowadays. Don't see too many of them around."

"I guess not," I said as my master suddenly appeared out of nowhere with another human who had the over hyper Skitty in her arms.

"Hey Zack," my master said. "I see you've already met Laura's Teddiursa. What was his name again?"

"His name's Ted," the other human spoke, her voice that of female. She had brown hair bunched up into some sort of weird bushy tail or something in the back. She had curves that my master didn't, which probably explains the difference between males and females.

"Right," my master said. "And you just decided to name your Skitty Skitty?"

"It's an adorable name for a cat pokemon like this," the girl named Laura said as she squeezed the Skitty. The Skitty chuckled at being called adorable while being hugged tightly.

"Whatever," my master said. "Say Zack. Have you seen Charcoal anywhere?"

I went to answer, but then Charcoal seemingly came out of nowhere suddenly, rounding our master's legs.

"Someone call my name?" he asked.

"So this is the famous Charcoal, eh?" Laura asked. "The one with all the moves?"

"You bet," my master said excitedly. "How about I show you in a double battle?"

"Sounds fun to me," Laura said as she began running out from the building. "Come on. I know a great spot where we can battle."

"What's going on?" I asked Charcoal as he, Ted, and I followed in pursuit. "And what's a double battle?"

"Obviously we're going to be fighting the Skitty and this Ted character to see how well our skills our," Charcoal said.

"All right!" I said excitedly. "This should be fun!"

"I sure hope so," Charcoal said as we finally came to a stop in a nice clearing with buildings surrounding us.

"So it's going to be my Skitty and Ted against your Charcoal and Zack," Laura said from the opposite end of where Charcoal and I stood alongside our master.

"Sounds good to me," my master said. "Both pokemon to faint first loses."

"Then let's battle!" Laura said as Skitty jumped out of her arms, landing next to Ted.

I took up a position stance to begin the fight. Charcoal, however, stepped out in front of me and raised up a claw, preventing me from attacking. "You may have the first move," he said. I realized that this was what he did to examine what powers I had before I battled him.

"Then that shall be your down fall, fire lizard," Skitty said as she rushed forward. "Feel my Quick Attack!"


	5. Tag Team Battle

**All right! I finally figured out how to get my stories back up and running. So hopefully now I can start updating more again. i apologize for the long wait, but I have to admit, I don't know everything about Fan Fiction that I thought I did. Learnign something new is quite exciting! So anyway, after much long waiting, I give you all this next chapter of ZAL. Enjoy, review, and I'll update soon.**

Chapter 5: Tag Team Battle

"Feel my Quick Attack!" Skitty said as she came running at Charcoal and I. I glanced over at Chaarcoal who was looking at me. We nodded our heads at the exact same time, almost like we knew how to counteract the attack. As Skitty neared, we suddenly took a sidestep and let Skitty run past us.

"Nya!?" she said in surprise as she turned her head to look back at us. Unfortunately, in doing so, she ran right into a tall black thing with glass at the top.

I heard my master laughing along with some other people our battle attracted. It was a bit funny to see that all happen, I hate to admit, but it was true. Of course, the only one who wasn't laughing was Laura who was shouting at everyone to stop laughing. When they didn't, she continued on with the battle.

"All right, Ted," she said. "Use Swift!"

"O.K.," Ted said as the crescent moon upon his forehead glowed. Yellow stars shot out a split second later, aiming for me.

"Now this looks like fun!" I said excitingly as the stars came closer. Suddenly, they were engulfed and vaporized by Charcoal's flamethrower. Ted just stood there, not even looking fazed at what happened.

"Hey Zack," Charcoal said to me. "Mind if I take on Ted while you take on Skitty?"

"Not at all," I replied with a grin.

"Thanks," Charcoal said, the entire time keeping his attention on Ted.

I turned my attention back to the weirdo Skitty whose head was wobbling dizzily all the while trying to keep her balance.

"I'm a-gonna get ya," she said. "All five of ya, unless you used Double Team, which I'm a-gonna get ya anyway." She shook her head and looked straight at me. "Oh it's you. Boy you look cute. Prepare yourself. Rawr!"

With that she leapt at my left side. Clearly she was still a little dizzy and did not seem to know which one of me to leap at. She jumped far left this time, completely off target. So I decided to turn my attention back to Charcoal's battle with Ted.

Luckily I turned just in time to see Ted do a backflip in the air, dodging Charcoal's flamethrower. Charcoal seemed surprised that apokemon such as Ted could do something like that.

"How did you do that?" he asked.

"I just go with the flow," Ted replied. "I do what comes to mind naturally. It might not always work to my advantage, but it's worth a try."

"All right, Ted," Laura said. "Let's get in close and use Fury Swipe."

"On it," Ted said as he leaned forward and leapt at Charcoal with surprising speed. Charcoal, taken off guard, received several scratches upon his body.

"Got ya at last, you blue ringed charlatan," Skitty said suddenly, pouncing onto my head and digging her claws into it. I yelped out in pain as I began to run around.

I could hear laughter and voices, but couldn't quite make out what they were saying. My mind raced frantically on how to detach Skitty from my head when I suddenly tripped and fell. I was a fast recoverer, however, rolling onto my backside and returning to my feet.

I noticed immediately that the pain had subsided some, though my head was throbbing. I looked down where I rolled over to see Skitty lying there unconscious. Apparently I must have hit my head on the ground a little too hard.

"Oh no!" Laura cried out. "Skitty!"

"One down and one to go," my master said, prompting me to turn to see how Charcoal was doing.

Charcoal was looking rather exhausted while Ted seemed to remain the same. "I may not be good when it comes to long ranged attacks," he said. "But when it comes to using claw attacks, my speed is unmatched."

"Like you've demonstrated," Charcoal said.

"Indeed," Ted agreed. "Where as you are better at long ranged attacks and have no skill whatsoever with claw combat."

"I may not have any claw combat skills," Charcoal said. "But I'm skilled enough to beat you."

"You sure about that, bro?" Ted asked.

"Definitely," Charcoal replied, shooting out another flamethrower.

I watched as Ted leaned forward again and leapt right into the flamethrower. To everyone's surprise, including Charcoal, Ted somehow made his way through the flamethrower and slashed at Charcoal in an upward diagonal motion.

Charcoal immediately ceased his attack and slumped forward to the ground. I gaped down at Charcoal, surprised that, despite his cleverness, he was beaten. I looked up at Ted to see that he had several burns upon his body. Ted looked himself over and said with a smile, "Well that was quite a battle, though I wasn't expecting to get burned like this."

"Your speed is incredible," I commented.

"Thanks," Ted said. "I learned to use this speed from an old friend of mine who is a master of claw combat. I've been wanting to use this technique on you."

"Well then bring it on," I said with a grin. "I always enjoy new challenges."

"Then this battle should be quite interesting," Ted said, leaning forward.

"I sure hope so," I said as I took a stance for my next battle.


	6. Zack vs Ted

Chapter 6: Zack vs. Ted

I stood there, staring at my opponent as I waited for him to make a move, or at least make the move after his trainer called out the attack. But I'm just getting off track. Time to snap back to the battle. i tensed my muscles a bit when I heard Laura yell out an attack to Ted.

"All right, Ted!" she said. "Let's get in close with Fury Swipes again."

Ted smirked and from his position of leaning forward, he shot right up to me like a bullet and started swiping his claws at me, but I managed to dodge each attack that came at me, even though I was at a close quarter combat style of attack.

"Zack!" I heard my master yell. "Leap back and use Psychic!"

"Huh?" I asked, turning to my head towards him and about to wonder what Psychic was when I suddenly received a series of scratches upon my face, immediately forgetting that Ted was still attacking. Guess I'm easily distracted. That, or I have a one-tracked mind. I really couldn't tell. Maybe I was both.

I stepped back a few paces to recover, but didn't have the time to as I heard Laura yell out, "Now follow it up with Swift!"

I was immediately bombarded by the yellow stars coming out of Ted's crescent moon upon his head, leaving some cuts upon my body. Once the attack ceased, I felt my legs wobbling a bit. I drooped my head and suddenly began laughing, releasing it as I threw my head into the air.

"What's... funny?" I heard Ted asked. I managed to calm my laughter down and saw a look of confusion on his face now.

"It's just the thrill of the battle you're giving me," I said smiling. "Those were some lucky shots."

"Just do what comes naturally," Ted said. "Like I said."

"Right," I said.

"All right, Zack," I herd my master say. "Psybeam."

My smile died into a smirk as I released the rainbow colored beam at Ted who dodged it last second, or more like shifting his body to one side like he was swaying like a Bellsprout on a windy day, though his feet remained planted to the ground. The Psybeam completely missed him as he did so.

"Good job, Ted," Laura said. "Now use Dynamic Punch!"

"Dynamic... what?" Ted asked, taking a look back at his master. This gave me the opportunity to get in close with a Quick Attack and use Bite on him, which I did, clamping my teeth over his right shoulder. This caused Ted to make a painful grunting noise and being his attention ack to me as I bit down a little harder, causing Ted to wince, right before he closed his eyes and began humming some strange tune I wasn't familiar with.

"What's he doing?" I heard my master ask.

"You'll see," Laura said, prompting me to glance up at her. When I did, I saw that she was smirking for some odd reason. I began to realize that biting Ted was a mistake, for when I looked back down at him, his eyes were open and he was giving me one of those happy evil glares that meant that they had something wicked planned up.

_"Uh-oh!" _I thought as I looked up at his already glowing crescent moon again. And once more I was bombarded by the yellow stars. And being that I was in such close range, I took a lot of damage from the attack, even causing me to release my hold on Ted as I yelped and staggered back. Unfortunately, the attack didn't end there.

I managed to open my eyes again after wincing to see Ted already rushing up at me, a fist pulled back and rearing forward as he made a powerful connection in an uppercut motion, hitting the underside of my muzzle. I went flying into the air and was met by more yellow stars before landing flat on my stomach, the excruciating pain throbbing throughout my entire body.

"Ow!" I groaned as I managed to open an eye to see Ted cracking his knuckles.

"Mega Punch," he said. "Always does damage to my opponent, though not as more damaging than what Dynamic Punch can do, though I do have to learn it first."

I chuckled a bit, a grin tugging at my lips. Ted looked slightly confused as to why I was smiling.

"This sure is an exciting match," I said, beggining to concentrate some power directly to my mouth. "But I think it's high time to wrap this up."

"Indeed," Ted said as his crescent moon glowed again. Perfect.

In one smooth move, I opened up my mouth and spat a Shadow Ball directly at his head. The stars were just starting to come out when my attack reached him, exploding on contact. Ted was thrown back due to the result of the explosion. Man, that was going to be one nasty headache.

He lied there for several minutes. Silence was all around now as everyone watching the battle waited to see whether Ted would get up or not. Finally, after what seemed to be like forever, Ted rose a paw to his head and groaned. It took him a little longer to come around and finally get up. I could see his head leaning far to one side. That explosion took a lot out of him. It would have done the same thing to me too if I had something on my head that would explode like that. Wait, where's my mind wandering to?

I shook my head, focusing back on the battle before me as Ted slowly got up, still clutching his head. I heard Laura ask if he was all right. He didn't look it though. He looked as he if he was about to keel over.

"You all right?" I asked. "Maybe we should stop."

"No," Ted said, trying to keep his balance. "I'm fine. Just have a very bad headache, that's all."

"Ted, think you're up for another Mega Punch?" Laura asked.

"He looks beat," I heard my master said. "Maybe we should call this match a draw."

"Not yet," Laura said. "Ted's still good enough to fight. You're just underestimating him. Now Ted, let's straighten up and use Mega Punch once more."

"One sec.," Ted said, shaking his head a little. "Ah! There we go. Much better." He removed his paw from his head while his other paw balled up into a fist. Then he began running at me, pulling his fist back to cause a strike. An idea quickly popped into my head and I concentrated some power to my mouth again.

Ted neared and began swinging his fist forward when I suddenly opened my mouth, revealing anotehr Shadow Ball. Ted's eyes went wide upon realizing what was about to happen. Apparently, I realized what was about to happen to and could only stand there and watch as Ted's Mega Punch made contact with my Shadow Ball.

Another explosion occurred, sending us both flying back. I wasn't too sure what happened with Ted, but all i know was that I hit my back against something hard. Probably what Skitty hit her head on earlier. I slumped down to the ground, utterly exhausted. I focused my vision back for a brief moment to see that Ted was lying on his stomach this time, struggling to get up.

"That was a smart move," he said. "Stupid, but smart."

"Thanks," I said. "Guess we'll call this one a draw?"

"Until the next time we battle," Ted said as he finally gave up trying to get up and lied there. I smiled and even let out a small chuckle before I too followed in blacking out.


	7. Pokeball Insanity

Chapter 7: Pokeball Insanity

All was dark when I regained consciousness, that, or my eyes were still closed. I felt like they were open, but I couldn't be too sure on that. I also couldn't be too sure where this tremendous headache suddenly came from. And now that my mind is awake, it's sending messages that my body is indeed aching. Somehow I must have battled someone way too hard, which was good, yet the bad thing was, the headache I had was preventing me from remembering. But what was it that I couldn't remember?

Suddenly, I felt a strange sensation spreading throughout my body. It felt quite weird, yet at the same time relaxing. Then a memory of remembrance came right back into my mind and I instantly knew where I was, but I still couldn't recall how I ended up sore in the first place.

Once my headache and all the aching in my muscles went away, it was then I snapped open my closed eyes. Heh! I knew there had to be a reason to why it was so dark in the first place. Everything seemed a little lighter now, of course, that was only because the light was coming in through the cave entrance behind me. So I turned around and walked out into the fake area I ended up getting myself caught at. Everything looked the same as well. Fake trees, fake grass, fake sun, and even though the water wasn't real, I couldn't help but feel thristy to the point of drinking.

So I walked over to the lake when my stomach growled. I tsked at myself for not eating earlier. Then again, I really couldn't tell when to eat now that I belong to a trainer. Stupid pokeball schedule up messer, if that's even a real sentence. I decided to get somethign to drink at the fake lake first, since I was more parched than hungry at the moment. I walked right to the edge and lowered my muzzle into the lake, taking a few gulps of water.

O.K. So the water isn't completely fake, but I'd still prefer the real deal to this. Besides, I always enjoyed a nice breeze, which the stupid pokeball didn't have. Once I had quenched my thirst, I stared down at my reflection in the water, observing myself. I smiled as I gazed down upon my adorable reflection. How in the world did I ever end up looking this handsome?

Maybe perhaps it was my dad's genes that made me look this way. But then what about my shininess? If dad provided the looks, then perhaps mom provided the shininess, although, I never did notice anything about my mom that was different in a way of colors. Perhaps I had the whole thing switched. Perhaps my mother provided the good looks while my father provided the shininess, my mother giving birth to me, the shiny red Eevee. At least, I think I was red.

I could have been an Eevee of a completely different color. So could this mean that I tricked myself into being a red Eevee all these years? Could I have actually been a different color? Maybe I was a white Eevee this entire time and I thought myself being red. Then again, I could have been albino, or maybe even beige. Of course, I could have been a green Eevee, or maybe black, or blue, or black, or yellow. But now I knew I was being ridiculous. I have never heard such a thing as a black Eevee, or blue, or yellow, or brown, or purple. Where has my mind gone?

Creepy! I think being stuck in this stupid fake environment has started to affect my mind. I slowly lowered myself into a sitting position and stared out across the fake lake, my mind going blank. I must have sat perfectly still for quite a while, for when a single muscle twitched, I yelped, jumping high up into the air and landing in the fake lake with a splash.

I blinked as my falling slowed, the water being the cause of my slowing descent. I moved my head about, studying the bottom of the fake lake. I never really took the time to actually dive below water to see what the bottom looked like. It was an amazing sight to behold, even if it was a fake lake. The sand was so smooth and untouched. There was weird looking grass swaying ever so gently, back and forth, back and forth, almost like it was dancing.

And the fake sunlight that came through made the sand at the bottom sparkle, like there were tiny diamonds embedded within. I bet the real thing was even more amazing than what I was seeing here. I let lose some bubbles, my lungs calling for air. Using my forepaws, I swam up to the surface, breathing in the fresh fake air before I got out from the lake, shimmying the water off from my body. I felt cool, refreshed, happy, and hungry, cue the grwoling of an empty stomach.

I furrowed my eyes as to decide what to eat. There were bushes nearby, but whether they were satisfying enough to eat or not was the problem. In the long run, I decided to try it out and walked over to the bushes. Upon nearing, I saw some delicious blue berries upon the bushes. I don't know anything about berries in particular. What I did know, or at least pick up, was that some were sweet while others were sour. Then there were ones that tasted really spicy.

I leaned in close and sniffed at one of the berries. I didn't smell nothing weird about it, so I decided that it might have been a good berry to eat. Tilting my head some, I used my teeth to pull the berry off from the bush and bite down on it. Immediately my tastebuds were met by a sweet, tangy feeling. I could feel the juice running down my throat. It was delicious, yet it did not quite fill my appptite, so I continued picking berries off the bush until my hunger was satisfied.

I laughed giddily with excitement before running around in a circle, my tongue hanging out as I quickly released all the excess energy I had stored up within me. Man I must be bored. This stupid ball I was in provided no adventure, yet it quickly made me realize that me being the shiny red Eevee was a lie all these years. How could I have let myself believe I was such?

I ran back over to the cave entrance and fell, rolling onto my back and raising all four of my paws into the air. I sighed and panted heavily, the fake air trying to catch up with me. And as my breathing slowed after a few minutes, my mind began flicking to that of what had transpired within the day, at least I think it's been a day. It could be tomorrow, which was actually yesterday. Wow! I never knew I knew the word transpired, and I don't even know what that means. Imagine that!

Like I was thinking, or saying rather, I began thinking about the team I was on and the other pokemon I had met. First off, I didn't know a single thing about Laura. Perhaps this was just a one time meeting. BUt her pokemon were sure interesting, or at least Ted was. I had to admit, his claw combat style really got my adrenaline pumping. Best match ever! That, and I grinned when I recalled forming a Shadow Ball and aiming it at his crescent moon upon his forehead, which was just starting to shoot out those yellow stars when my attack made contact and detnated it. And of course, I used my attack again at close combat, when Ted went and use his punch attack, ending in a draw. Now Ted I admired as a great adversary to battle.

Then there was that weirdo Skitty who was way too hyper. Then again, I've never met many Skittys, probably because of my love of adventure. The Skitty was, like I said, or thought, or whatever, weird, yet she may have been fun to mess around with, like sidestepping her and letting her run straight into that unknown object when she looked back at Charcoal and I.

Speaking of whom, I had to say, Charcoal is very smart, probably smarter than me, which was proven when I first battled him and got myself captured my the master who is now mine. And I don't even know his name. All I know is that he's like every other trainer I've come across. Just wanting to capture pokemon and become really strong, which I have no problem with. Besides, being on a trainer's team will be more adventurous for me, travelling to places I've already been to see new stuff happening and going to new places I haven't.

But, returning to Charcoal, I still had a battle to owe to him to see just how strong I was against him. I let my guard down once, shame on me, let my guard down twice, well, we'll see in the upcoming future battle. I'll get you for this, Charcoal.

Wait, why am I thinking like this? Stupid pokeball. It's all your fault. Making me think of things I'm not supposed to. I want out, though I had to admit, if Laura were to join up with our group, it would be pretty interesting. But still, I have to break out. I'm already losing my mind. I need to get out before I lose anything else. So, I did the first thing that came to mind. I began blasting Shadow Balls all over the place, disturbing the water, burning the grass, and even marking the cave before I felt the familiar tugging sensation pulling me out from my ball.

All went dark for a minute before my clearing changed. I was back in an area full of trees, which got me quite confused before I saw my master and the girl Laura staring at me.

"Zack," my master said. "How did you get out from your pokeball?"

"Perhaps he doesn't like it," Laura said. "There are people who keep their pokemon out from their pokeballs and let them wander."

"Yeah but what if Zack runs off?" my master asked. "Someone else could go and capture him."

"Not if you don't release him," Laura said. "As long as Zack is yours, no one else can catch him."

"Oh," my master said with a sigh of relief. "That's good to know."

"And you're wanting to become a Pokemon Master," Laura grumbled. "Seriously. I keep Skitty out all the time."

It was then I noticed that the Skitty was in Laura's arms, wrapped up and looking quite happy. Hmm. Weird. Here's Laura and her team, which means that she decided to come along. Perfect! All part of my delusional plan. What the plan was, I wasn't sure. But it was nice having her with us, which meant Ted and I could break our tie-breaker in the near possible future. Stupid pokeball

"Skitty," Laura said. "Since Zack's going to be out of his pokeball for the journey, you'll have someone to play with.

"Yea!" Skitty said, zooming over to me. "I knew yous couldn't stand to stay away from me for very long. Now I have someone to talk to forever and ever and ever and ever and-"

My eye seemed to start twitching as I stared at the Skitty who woud not stop talking. Right now, I think the stupid pokeball would have been better being in than going through this. Finally, she stopped when my mastrer said, "You know, this would probably be some good exercise for Charcoal too. Come on out!"

Thank goodness. Now I didn't have to deal with the crazy Skitty alone, of course, when Charcoal popped out from his ball and saw Skitty, he just seemed to stand there, looking absolutely like he didn't want to be there in the first place. At least I had some company.

"Oh great," Charcoal said. "Now I'm going to have a headache."

The Skitty zipped on over to him, questioning him about his flame tail. The humans just stood there dumbfounded, yet seemed to be chuckling over what the Skitty was doing. I sighed silently. This was going to be one weird adventure for me. I just hoped that adventure would come sometime soon. But out of everything going on at the moment, one thing was for sure: I definitely, no longer like pokeballs.


	8. Viridian Forest

Chapter 8: Viridian Forest

I yawned as we walked. I wasn't sure how long we were walking. All I know was that we were walking due to the many trees that we have passed since I had broken out of my pokeball. And, the best thing was that I had Charcoal out here with me to talk to, plus the Skitty who seemed to have calmed down for the time being. Both Charcoal and I were glad about that. Then, a question hit me, one that I had the desire to ask.

"Hey Charcoal," I said.

"Yeah," Charcoal said.

"Where are we?"

"Viridian Forest."

"Viridian Forest?" I repeated.

"You know, the forest that's named after Viridian City," Charcoal said.

"But why's it called Viridian Forest?" I questioned. "What's it so famous for?"

There was a moment's pause as Charcoal crossed his arms and shut his eyes, thinking about the answer. "You know," he said a few moments later. "I'm not absolutely sure about that."

"Ha!" Skitty laughed. "That proves you don't know everything in the world."

"I never said I knew everything," Charcoal said.

"We'll see about that," Skitty said. "What's one plus one?"

"Two?" Charcoal questioned, raising an eyebrow.

"What's the pre-evolved form of a Caterpie?"

"There is no pre-evolved form," Charcoal said.

"What's the square root of pie divided by two thousand times sixteen?" Skitty asked, looking back at him and smirking.

"What kind of question is that?" Charcoal asked, looking quite bewildered.

"A question way out of terms, if you ask me," I said.

"My point proven," Skitty said. "You don't know everything."

I just stared at Charcoal who pointed at the Skitty while using his other paw to make a circling motion all the meanwhile looking at me. I nodded, agreeing with him. The forest, I took notice of, seemed to be growing rather dark the more we walked on. Before I could voice out my question, Skitty groaned and asked, "How much further are we going to walk?"

"Judging by how dark it's quickly becoming, I'd say we would be stopping very shortly," Charcoal told her. "Unless our trainers plan on pulling an all nighter just to get to Pewter City."

"Well I hope we stop soon," I said. "It's been a while since I got to do some night hunting."

"What's night hunting?" Skitty asked, falling back to walk along with Charcoal and I.

"Night hunting is something dark type pokemon tend to normally do," Charcoal explained. "Dark type pokemon walk about at night and hunt other pokemon for food. And that's something Zack does."

"Wait!" Skitty said, looking over to me. "You mean that Zack is a dark type pokemon?"

"You didn't know?" I asked, a little surprised.

"I always thought you were a psychic type," Skitty said.

"He's part psychic," Charcoal said. "The other part of him is dark."

"So he's a dark type and a psychic type," Skitty said. "Dark, psychic. He's a dark psychic. I always had a thing for dark psychics."

"You also have a thing for anything that rouses your curiosity," Charcoal said.

"Not true," Skitty said.

"Blue ball," Charcoal randomly said.

"I LOVE blue balls!" Skitty cheered. "They're so round and blue. You know that blue is my favorite color, right?"

Charcoal sighed as I silently chuckled. A thought then came across my mind, one that I didn't think of asking earlier. "Say Charcoal, where is it we're going?"

"Pewter City," Charcoal said.

"What's in Pewter City?" I asked.

"That's right," Charcoal said more to himself than me. "You were in your ball when it was discussed. Our trainer saw a poster for some sort of Pokemon League or something."

"Pokemon League?" I questioned.

"I'm not quite sure, but I think it's just a championship to see which trainer and their pokemon can be the best," Charcoal said. "But to get to the Pokemon League, trainers have to battle eight different Pokemon Gyms in eight different cities. Each gym has a different element type the pokemon have to battle to earn a badge of the gym. Once all eight are collected, then the trainers get to go to the Pokemon League."

"Now that sounds interesting!" I said, feeling a spark of excitement flow through my body. "I have to battle these gyms and get to this Pokemon League."

"Don't forget that I'm on your team too," Charcoal reminded me.

"Oops," I said with an embarrassed smile. "Forgot about that. Sorry. But what about Laura's team? Are Skitty and Ted doing the gyms as well?"

"We're not," Skitty said. "Laura's not much into battles such as gyms and all that. She just likes to sit on the sidelines a lot, but she still trains us in her spare time."

"Right here will do," my master suddenly said, all of us stopping in a small, open clearing. "This will be a perfect spot to sleep for the night."

"Are you sure?" Laura asked, looking rather nervous. "I-I'm not use to sleeping outdoors."

"Don't worry about a thing," my master said with a smile. "As long as our pokemon are out, we'll be safe from any pokemon that wanders into our tent."

"Are you sure?" Laura asked.

"Positive," my master said, still smiling as he got out a pair of sleeping bags. "Good thing I brought along a spare." He handed Laura his other sleeping bag.

"Well," I said, stretching. "If it's all right with you guys, I think I'll just take my leave. Be back in the morning."

"Hey Zack," I heard my master call out to me, causing me to look back at him. "Where're you going?"

I heard Charcoal sigh, "Humans," before reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out a red, handheld device.

"Huh!?" my master said, looking down at him. "Charcoal!?" Charcoal opeend up the device and used his paws to work it before handing it back to our master.

_"Umbreon, the dark type pokemon,"_ a computerized voice spoke. _"Umbreon is one of seven evolutions of it's pre-evolved form of Eevee. Umbreons are normally known to wander during the night to hunt for food."_

"Oh!" my master said, looking quite surprised about this. Laura busted out laughing at that point, prompting my master to ask what she was laughing about.

"I...can't...believe...you...have...a pokemon...who's...smarter...than...you!" Laura laugehd in between gasps of breath. "It's embarrassing!"

All I saw of my master before I turned away laughing out loud was his face turning very bright red. "Even your pokemon think it's hilarious!" she said before continuing her laughter, one of which echoed across the vast darkness of the forest I blended into as my night hunting began.


	9. Night Reflections

Chapter 9: Night Reflections

O.K. So here I was alone in the ever thick forest of Viridian Forest. Not too bad, right? After all, I am an Umbreon, and as such, I am not afraid of the dark. I have my night vision to help guide me along, one of the greatest advantages of being an Umbreon. It kept me from bumping into such things like trees or being attacked by an unseen enemy. In fact, I think I can recall the time I evolved into an Umbreon. However, it is too much of a private detail to go into. Too painful to think about, so I just moved on, pushing the thought away.

But even when I was still an Eevee kit did I want to become an Umbreon. Now that was a story right there that I could tell without any painful memories coming back to heart. But where to begin was hard to think about. The beginning was always easy, so I think I'll start from there.

(Flashback begins)

_I could feel the drops of rain pelting against my face, causing me to blink and shake my head. My fur was soaked to the bone, sagging close to the ground, but I could care less. After all, I was already dirty with mud clinging to my fur. I grinned to myself, my ears picking up the slightest sound of squishing mud. Playing with my friends in the rain was always fun, flinging mud at each other, wrestling around in the mud. I loved playing in the mud when it was raining. But ONLY when it was raining. It wasn't much fun when it was sunny. The mud would dry too quickly, making it difficult to get off, a lesson I learned the hard way._

_I looked up into the dark, gray sky, keeping my attention away from my surroundings while keeping my ears alert. I smirked as I heard the sound of mud being scraped up and molded into a mudball. An Eevee's hearing was one of the best senses we had. Of course, that doesn't mean to say it was effective all of the time._

_My attention was brought back as my ears concentrated on the sound of the mudball being thrown at me. I heard the whistling of wind as it came my direction. I smiled and tilted my head far right, the mudball zipping past my head_

_"No fair!" someone cried. I took a look over from where the mudball had come from to see a Poochyena coming out from hiding. "You cheated!"_

_"I didn't cheat," I proclaimed. "I was looking up the entire time."_

_"Yeah but you heard it," a feminine voice said. I turned towards the speaker to see another one of my friends, a Nidoran, walking out from behind a tree. "And don't try to deny it. I know Eevee such as yourself have a good variety of hearing."_

_"Guess you know me pretty well, don't you, Lizzie?" I said with a smirk._

_"Perhaps too well," Lizzie said, smacking her paw down into the mud and throwing a good chunk of it into my face. This provided her and the Poochyena to tackle me. However, even though I was going to be tackled either way I jumped, I had decided to jump to the left, getting tackled by Lizzie. I always did like Lizzie. She was my first and closest friend I've met._

_The two of us tumbled down a slippery, muddy hill, our fur being covered in nothing but mud. And though I couldn't see, I could feel myself sliding around in the mud. It was so exhilarating that when I stopped sliding, I began laughing. I heard Lizzie laughing along with me._

_"You should see how muddy you are!" she laughed. "You look so hilarious!" I could only keep laughing not from how she described me, but from the thrill of excitement I was having. After a good while of laughing, I could feel Lizzie by my side, helping me up. "Come on. Let's all get washed up."_

_"Do we have to?" I asked. "I like being muddy."_

_"We'll always have tomorrow," Lizzie said._

_"Great!" I said with a smile. "As long as it's raining."_

_"Let's hope it still is," Lizzie said._

_However, as we began walking upslope, I heard Poochyena cry out, "Watch out behind you!"_

_Being that I had mud blinding me for the moment, I really couldn't see what was behind me. All I knew a couple seconds later was that I was lying on my side, whimpering from the pain that I now was feeling. "What do we have here?" I heard a voice say. "Fresh meat for my younglings!"_

_"Leave Zack alone, you big bully!" I heard Lizzie yell. "Pick on someone your own size!"_

_"Seeing as how you seem tough, I'll take care of you first," I heard the voice say before hearing the crackling of electricity and Lizzie screaming in agonizing pain. "You and your little friend here will be quite the meal for my younglings."_

_"Stop!" I yelled, struggling to get up. "Leave her out of this. If it's me you want, it's me you'll get. Just don't touch one hair on her or I'll-"_

_"Mighty big talk for such a weak pokemon," I heard the pokemon say, his voice getting closer, indicating that his attention was turned to me. "How about I promise you this deal? I'll let you watch your friend die slowly by hand. Then when I'm done with her, I'll come back for you." As he said all this, he slammed his paw down upon my body. I could actually feel some of my bones crack. I felt a furry arm wipe across my eyes a few times until I got a clear enough vision of my attacker._

_The pokemon I was looking at was white with a sort of red zigzag or something upon his body on his sides. He stood upon two legs and he had very sharp claws. He had a smirk upon his face. "D-Don't!" I cried as I tried to breathe. I looked around, hoping to see my Poochyena friend somewhere nearby, but to no avail did I see the gray pup. All the pokemon did was smirk even wider before he turned around, walking back over to Lizzie who was unconscious upon the ground. The pokemon stood before her, facing me to make sure I was watching. I whimpered, knowing what was about to happen._

_The pokemon raised up his claws and was just thrusting them down to puncture through her when a black call made contact with the pokemon, knocking him off balance. Time seemed to slow down for me at that moment as a black canine with yellow rings glowing upon his body entered the area, his red eyes gleaming in the dark. Time resumed just as suddenly as it stopped, the canine standing right in front of me, yet not entirely blocking my view._

_"Get up," he said in a gentle voice. "I know that attack didn't do you in. It omly took you by surprise."_

_I watched as the pokemon slowly got up, looking angry. "Got me all figured out, don't you?" he said. "I wasn't expecting anyone to be out here, so of course my guard was down. But that still won't stop me from killing this meal for my younglings." The pokemon ran forward again, thrusting his claws right into Lizzie, or at least where Lizzie lied a few seconds ago. All I could do was watch as Lizzie was being moved to the right by some invisible force, saving her from becoming a pokemon's meal. I saw the canine turn about to look at me as Lizzie was gently placed down next to me before turning his attention back to the pokemon who's claws looked like they were stuck in the ground._

_The canine chuckled. "Looks like you're stuck," he said._

_"Shut up," the pokemon said. "Once I get out of my situation, I'll kill you along with the little brats." With a great, big pull, the pokemon pulled his claws out and charged at the canine pokemon, leaping into the air and coming down to strike at the canine when his face suddenly changed to that of fear, somehow being stopped in midair._

_"Now," the canine pokemon said in an angry, yet calm tone. "I want you to leave this part of the woods and never return. If I receive word that you have ever been here again or that you harmed or even killed kits, I will not show you any mercy the next time we meet. Understand?" The pokemon gulped and slightly nodded his head. "Then leave," the canine said, jerking his head to the right, the pokemon being thrown a good distance in the same direction. "And never come back." The pokemon got up and fled, running as fast as he could._

_I stared after the pokemon for quite a bit before looking back at the canine pokemon. His rings were no longer glowing and his eyes no longer held the gleam I saw. All I could see was the pokemon staring down at me, smiling softly as he said, "It's O.K. You're both safe now." I just gazed in awe at the pokemon, replaying everything that just happened. I could feel my heart begin to beat faster as a weird feeling came over me by just staring at this pokemon as my parents, along with Lizzie's, came running down to us, worried looks upon their faces._

(Flashback ends)

The sound of a Hoot-Hoot snapped me back to reality, causing me to realize where I was, completely losing myself in a flashback. Or was it a daydream? Definitely a flashback. There's no such thing as having a daydream at night, is there? It would have to be called a nightdream, and that wasn't even a real word, I don't think at least.

Anyway, I went to continue my night hunting for pokemon when my perephial vision caught sight of light to my right. Why there was light in the forest was beyond me. Curious to know what this strange light was about, I began walking towards it, like it was beckoning me. Had I known what was about to happen, I probably would have just walked right along and minded my own business.


	10. The Element Clan

Chapter 10: The Element Clan

The light that entranced me over to it grew brighter and brighter as I walked nearer and nearer. Things were racing through my mind as I slowly walked towards the light, things like why there was a light in the middle of the woods for. Then again, it was proably some humans setting up camp and they were known for making campfires. So this light might have been from a campfire, but if that was the case, how was it I was able to see it from afar?

I would soon find out the reason to my question in just a minute as I walked into a nearby bush to do some obeservation. Good thing I was an Umbreon, eh? Anyway, I sat down for about a minute to calm myself so I wouldn't do anything foolish to give my position away. When I felt ready, I silently padded forward, moving ever so slowly so as not to rustle the bush too much. I came to the opening and had to squint my eyes being that the light was a little too bright for my taste.

After adjusting to the light, I looked out toward what I thought was a campsite, but what I got was a big suprise at what I was actually looking at. I glanced around just to make sure my eyes were looking right. There were weird looking lights sitting upon the ground in a kind of circle, all pointing inward upon the largest group of pokemon I have ever seen. And it wasn't all just Weedle, Caterpie and other bug pokemon, no. There were other pokemon I have never seen in my life before. It was sort of strange really. I remember coming through this way because I remember the large tree that the pokemon were gathered in front of. And that wasn't too long ago. So this must have happened just recently.

I looked up toward the big tree as all the pokemon had their attention to it. I couldn't see nothing at first, but then a pokemon walked up in front of the group of pokemon. I couldn't tell what pokemon it was exactly due to the lights all focused on him. All I could see was a shadow figure of the pokemon as he began to speak.

"Well," the pokemon said in a cold, gentle, slimy voice. "It's certainly wonderful to see such a crowd of pokemon before me tonight." He became silent for a few moments before continuing. "Now I must apologize for calling you all out at this time of night, but this is the only time we can start our the meeting of our clan to succession."

"And what clan are we to be?" someone had asked.

"This is the beginning of the Element Clan," the pokemon said. "The reason for the name, if you all haven't noticed, there are pokemon of every single element here, thus the name Element Clan." Mumurs of talk of the clan name spread out clearly for several seconds before the leader pokemon of the clan silenced them all down. "Hush now. We don't want anyone knowing about our little clan group now, do we? Now, on to business. I have sent my best warriors out around the world to recruit all of you here for the past year for a reason, a reason that I shall reveal tonight. But before I explain my goal, I need to ask, how many of you here have always felt ignored, useless, pathetic, weak? Like you weren't good for nothing in life and wish you had never been born?"

A bunch of paws were raised high into the air as other pokemon siply just tried to look tall, adding themselves to the votes. "Excellent," the pokemon said. If I knew what he was, I would have imagined him smirking. "What if I told you that the reason I decided to form this clan was to get back at the ones for their wrongdoings by showing them just how meaningful you are? To show them that they're the weak ones who have deserved what is to come to them?"

More exciting talk went on for several more minutes before they were hushed again. "And just how do you plan on making us stronger than anybody else in this world?" another pokemon asked. "Especially when there are stronger pokemon out there in the world?"

A few other pokemon agreed with the one who spoke up, stirring up some doubting issues before they were silenced again. "I know that what I'm about to say is going to sound completely crazy and that you may not believe me, but the only way for the weak to become strong is to absorb the power of a legendary pokemon."

Silence fell over the crowd as the pokemon said this, surprised reactions upon their faces. Still reamined in the bushes, I allowed my jaw to drop in surprise as well. Abosrb the power of a legendary pokemon? This pokemon must be nuts to do something like that. Why would he want to absorb a legendary's power anyway? The question would have probably been asked, had my nose began tingling so suddenly. I realized what was trying to come out, and I did my best to keep it from coming. The tingling sensation went away after a few minutes.

"Whew!" I thought to myself. "That was almost too- achoo!" Sneezing alerted the attention of everyone as they all turned and looked at where I hid. My mind decided to go blank on me at that moment. So now here I was, exposed to all these pokemon after listening in. The bad thing about it was, whoever this unknown pokemon was that wanted to absorb the power of legendary pokemon, I had absolutely no idea what type of pokemon he was.

"Show yourself," he said. "Unless you would like to meet an early death."

Well, guess I had no choice but to go out there and bluff my way out of this mess. Taking a deep breath, I walked right on out in the open with a smile, hoping my plan would work. "Hi guys!" I said cheerfully. "Nice night, isn't it? Sorry about the whole hiding in the bushes thing, but I kind of got attracted to the light and decided to see what all that was about."

"Exactly how much did you hear, Umbreon?" the mysterious pokemon asked. Jeez, he sure was one to get to the point.

"Well, I only just got here, so I couldn't have heard anything, what with the silence and all," I began saying.

"You know what I think?" I heard someone say. "I think he's lying. I think he heard everything you said." I looked around quickly, trying to see who said that, but to no avail did I see anyone. So my conclusion was that there was someone else up with the unknown pokemon. "What do you think we should do?"

Everything was silent for a while. I felt very awkward standing here in front of all these pokemon, being stared at like I was the next new thing in life. Finally, the tension was relieved as the pokemon spoke, "I have come to a decision. We have been stumbled upon by accident. We shall move the location of our clan elsewhere and resume matters there. But, I will need someone to stay behind and take care of the intruder. Anyone to volunteer?"

All was quiet for several seconds before someone said, "I'll take care of things, sir." I looked around, hoping to find out who said that. It's tough when you have a sea of pokemon before you.

"I thank you for your bravery," the unknown pokemon said. "Catch us up nearer the city. As for you, intruder, if you ever survive, pray we not meet again." At those words, the lights all around glowed brighter, causing me to close my eyes before they dimmed again. I opened my eyes and found that all the pokemon were now gone. The only one left standing there was a pokemon I've seen plenty of times: a Sneasel. It stood there, arms crossed and a smirk upon its face.

"You sure know how to make a mess of things, don't you Umbreon? he asked.

"What does it matter?" I asked. "Why does your leader want to absorb the power of legendary pokemon?"

"You think that if I knew, I would tell you," the Sneasel said. "But, then again, even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you a single thing. But it isn't going to matter, because you're going to die for finding out about our little clan, especially since you weren't recruited."

"You can try," I said, forming up a Shadow Ball before firing it at the Sneasel.


	11. Stealth

**I'm sorry for being gone for so long. I have had a lot of things happening such as writer's block, other stories I've been working on, and just life and stuff. But now I'm back and I can start working on the unfinished stories I've started. I can't say for sure when each chapter wil be updated, being that I'm busy working on four stories. Yes, you heard me. Four.**

**The other story is in my other profile Sinful Dragon. I've never realized working on four stories at once could be so hard. I don't know where the inspiration comes from half the time. It really all depends on my mood when I write. All right. Enough rambling. Read the chapter and pleae review. I don't like it when people read and don't review because I don't know what they think of it. Enough said.**

Chapter 11: Stealth

My eyes widened in surprise as the Sneasel easily batted my Shadow Ball away with a swat of his arm, the purple ball disappearing into the night sky. The smirk remained upon his face. "Was that the best you had?" he asked. "In all honesty, I was expecting a bit more."

"You want more?" I asked, the thrill of excitement coming to me again. "All right! This should be an interesting battle!" I rushed forward, using Quick Attack. I learned it when I was an Eevee, but for the moment, my focus was completely on battling as I ran at the Sneasel. However, just as I made contact, the Sneasel jumped out of the way and leapt into the forest. I stopped my attack and went to go charge in after him when I heard his voice behind me, laughing.

I turned my head, blinking in surprise. How did he get behind me so fast? I spun around and faced the direction his voice came from, but this time, it came from my left side. I turned left, but then his laughter came from behind me yet again. Where was this guy really at? And how was he able to move so fast? Sneasel couldn't learn Quick Attack, could they?

"Where are you?" I asked, looking around quite confused. The Sneasel only chuckled again, but this time with a hint of a deeper, darker tone.

"I may be here, Umbreon," he said. "Or I could be over here."

I looked around, confused. How was it that this guy was able to get from one spot to another within seconds? I needed a way to be able to tell where he was, which would mean that these lights would have to go. I smiled to myself, imagining the look of surprise on the Sneasel's face as I easily beat him down. I fired off a Psy Beam attack, breaking all the lights until the entire area became dark. Due to the lighting, my night vision was delayed in being activated.

Once my night vision was cleared up, I quickly looked around, hoping to spot the Sneasel from wherever he was, but to my surprise, I did not see him. This wasn't possible. A Sneasel couldn't just disappear like that, especially from one who had the ability to see in the dark. I suddenly groaned in pain as I felt something slash across the right side of my body. I heard an evil chuckle and glanced up into a tree. There, sitting upon the branch, was the Sneasel, only the odd thing was, I could only see his head. The rest of his body wasn't there.

"Why couldn't I see you?" I asked. "How are you everywhere at once? And how come I can only see your head and not the rest of you?"

"Hmm," the Sneasel said, a claw appearing as he looked at it in a bored interest. "Perhaps I should tell you exactly who I am and what it implies. My name is Stealth, Umbreon. And like my name, I blend in with the shadows, becoming one with them, like your types. I have offed millions of people and pokemon since I've learned how to control the ability. When it comes to a shadow battle, I cannot be bested."

"Yeah, well, we'll see about that," I said with a grin.

"Shall we now?" Stealth said, looking quite serious before he completely disappeared once again. I perked my ears up and concentrated hard on listening for his approach. My eyes glanced around every which way, hoping to catch a slight movement that seemed out of place. Suddenly, I felt something quite cold blasting me from my right, agitating the wound inflicted on me. I grimaced in pain as I held my ground. "Strong you are. But even the strongest pokemon like you will fall in due time."

"Do you always talk more than you fight?" I asked. "Because it bores me. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't your attacks that killed all those pokemon half the time."

"Cocky little runt, aren't you?" Stealth said, obviously a nerve struck. "Fine. If you wish your life to end, I'll do you that favor then."

I once again perked my ears up to listen for him in case he came rushing at me, but never heard anything. Not even the soft steps of his feet upon the ground. The next thing I knew, my right ear was grabbed, my head being yanked down to the ground right before I received a series of blows to the head. Then something made contact from beneath me, my head snapping straight up before I felt a kick to my throat. I stumbled back some, coughing.

"You're one to speak," said Stealth. "Listening for me will do you no good. I can shroud out anything when I'm in the shadows, even the sounds of my own footsteps. And yet here you stand, not doing a thing to even attempt to stop me from killing you. But then again, it wouldn't matter if you did. Whether you fired off an attack to stop me or not, you'd still never find me."

I growled slightly, the sound of his voice beginning to grow irritating to my ears. I swung an Iron Tail around in a circle, hoping to catch Stealth. Unfortunately, my tail ended up hitting nothing but air. The glow soon faded as I stopped my spinning, only due to me getting dizzy.

"You just don't learn, do you?" Stealth asked as I felt a kick to my left back leg, causing it to buckle. I quickly turned about, using my front paws for a spin and fired off a Shadow Ball where I thought he'd be. "Nice try." I felt his claw karate chop my back, not breaking it, but bruising rather badly. I grimaced through the pain, holding my ground so as not to fall. "My you're a strong one, but even strong types like you can't last forever."

"It'll take a lot more than a karate chop to the back to bring me down," I said with a grunt. All Stealth could do was chuckle, probably at my endurability.

"We'll see," he said, his voice a whisper. O.K. I probably only had a few minutes before he struck again. So my mind began running fast on any possible way I could catch this Sneasel off guard. The problem was, however, that I couldn't tell where he was coming from, let alone when he would strike. There had to be a weak spot, everyone had one, no matter how powerful they thought they were. Even I had weak spots, though I never went around telling them to anyone.

"I hope you have some famous last words you wish to get off your chest, Umbreon," Stealth said from all around. "Because this is the end for you."

"Only that you stop talking," I said. Really. What was with this guy and always talking? He more like nagged his enemies to death rather than physically do any real damage to them. That's when it clicked. Of course. I had been so busy trying to figure out where the Sneasel was that he's been showing off his weak point all along, or more like talking it. Ah! Doesn't matter. Time to act.

"If that is what you want," the Sneasel said, his voice coming from every which way direction.

"Better than being nagged to death," I said with a grin.

"Heh," Stealth said, a nerve obviously struck once again. I perked my ears up straight and concentrated real hard on his voice this time, trying to pinpoint his location. "You'll certainly die for that comment, Umbreon. And are you really still trying to listen for me? Pathetic. If I've told you once I'll tell you again. I can silence everything about me. You wouldn't even hear me coming as I finish you off. No one I've ever faced has." There. I glanced over in the direction I heard his voice coming from, readying up an attack. "And you won't make much of a difference either."

I suddenly turned towards the direction his voice was coming from, smiling victoriously as I did. "What?!" he said in surprise as I quickly spun around, an Iron Tail ready. This time, I felt it hit home. I must have sent him flying good, for the tree his leader was standing in front of was the tree he hit hard against. I looked over towards the tree, seeing the Stealth's unconscious body lying there. The hit must have knocked him out of his stealth form.

I let out a sigh of relief, staggering over to a tree to rest for a while. The wounds he caused weren't that bad, save for my back. But I'm sure that would heal over time. I slumped up against the tree, now realizing how exhausted I really was. It's funny how one doesn't notice something until after it's all over. Of course, what I thought was going to be a chance to recover my strength only turned out to shortened as I watched Stealth quickly come to and began getting up.

"Never in my whole life had I thought I'd get hit like that," Stealth said. I could clearly see the mark I left on his face. A rather nasty bruise it was. I was surprised that I was that strong, or was that just a lucky shot? Either way, it didn't help the fact that the Sneasel was getting back up. And he looked quite out of it. He smiled and giggled strangely. "My perfect record of being undefeated, broken. Now I'm really going to kill you."

Yeah. I was pretty much in big trouble. Some of his words were hard to hear. It was probably due to the exhaustion, for my vision was trying to black out. All I could see next was the Sneasel charging at me, claws sharpened, ready for the kill. I'm not sure what happened right then and there. It could have been dumb luck or it could have been the exhaustion finally hitting me all at once. I wasn't sure. All I knew was that I suddenly slumped sideways, the sharp claws missing my neck completely. All I heard was a weird crunching sound, like somehting got broken.

My senses suddenly returned and I blinked a few times, wondering how I ended up lying on the ground. I took a look up to where I was standing just moments ago to see Stealth standing in my place, his claw puncturing right through the tree I was leaning against. I could see wide alarm and panic on his face. Obviously he wasn't expecting me to dodge like that. I would call it dumb luck that got me out of that situation. Stealth's attention ws no longer on me, but rather the tree which appeared to be swaying about his way. Or more like it was starting to lean towards him.

I got up, attempting to help the Sneasel even if he did try and kill me. Stealth must have noticed me getting up, for he held out his free claw and threw up a yellow barrier, preventing me from helping him. "What are you doing?" I asked as the tree began to gain momentum.

"I lost," Stealth said. "To lose now and return to the clan would be a disgrace to them."

"So you're going to die just because you lost?" I asked, worriedly looking up at the tree as it was coming down. "That's stupid."

"Heh," Stealth said. "You don't have a clue as to what you're about to deal with. You'll soon meet your downfall at the hands of d-" The rest of his sentence was cut off as the tree broke through his Light Screen and crushed him. I looked away, not wanting to see Stealth crushed. The idiot. I could have helped him. He didn't have to die just because he lost. But would I be dead if I tried to help him? And who was the name of the person he was about to mention? Could it have been the leader of this "Element Clan" I stumbled across? It seemed to be so. And all I had of his name was the letter D, possibly. And there were a lot of names beginning with D. But I'm sure I had plenty of time to ponder over it. As of right now, I was really tired and wanted to do nothing more than return to the group, even though I was hungry right around now. Without a backward glance, I used my back feet to throw dirt behind me, as to pay my respects to the now late Stealth before I walked off back to my group.


	12. A Situation Occurs

Chapter 12: A Situation Occurs

Morning rose as the group I was with came into view. The light coming from the sun burned my eyes, the one thing Umbreon like me didn't really like. Which is why we find a cave or something to sleep in until we're good and ready for the sun. I felt tired after the long night, bypassing all the pokemon scurrying back to their home. The need for appetite was long lost. My stomach growled, demanding food, but I only winded up ignoring it.

As it were, I was just dragging my feet ever so slowly back to the campsite. My eyes were trying to force themselves shut. I blinked them rapidly and yawned. I'd catch up on sleep tonight. I wouldn't want to cause my master to lose precious time wherever it was we were going. Due to last night's fight, I forgot where we were going completely. All I knew was that it was a city. Of course, was it really night when I was fighting? Or was it morning? Exactly what time of day does the new day begin? Why am I always randomally going off onto another subject?

"Rawr!" someone suddenly said. I felt someone land on my back. "Hand over what items you got on you. Stick 'em up!" There was a slight pause. "I will eat you alive!" I turned my head, trying to see who it was that was on my back, even though I knew who it was.

"Hello, Skitty."

"Oh!" she said, surprised to see me. "It's you! I thought you might have been a predator."

"Obviously I'm not," I said. "You haven't been up the entire night, have you?"

"Meh," Skitty said, hopping down off my back and walked off back over to the tents, me following behind her.

"Had some late night scrapings?" I heard Charcoal ask me. I looked over towards a tree where he was apparently leaning on.

"I guess you could say that," I said nonchantly. What was that word I just spoke? I'd have to ask about it later.

"Another predator run in?" he questioned.

"I really don't feel like talking about it," I said, plopping myself down next to the tent.

"Fair enough, I suppose," Charcoal said, shoving himself off the tree and walking himself over to where I lied. Cue one stomach growl right there and then, causing a blush to form over my face. Charcoal raised what I think would be called an eyescale at me. I knew what was going through his mind. Curse that Sneasel and his stupidity for dying for losing against me.

It bugged me though, that Charcoal hadn't said a single thing relating to my stomach. I knew he knew that something was up, but I wasn't really going to tell him that I stumbled upon some clan wanting to steal the power of every legendary pokemon to possibly take over the world. Would I though? I wasn't sure. A part of me wanted to tell him, but there might be a possibility that he wouldn't believe me.

"I WILL NOT BE BROKEN!" I cried out, startling Charcoal. He stared at me, arms folded across his chest with wide eyes. O.K. So I happened to have freaked him out. What was going through my mind at the current moment, I couldn't be sure. Before I could recover from my sudden outburst, my attention was held upon the sound of what sounded like a zipper being unzipped, after a groan and yawn were heard.

"What's all the racket out here?" I heard my master ask as he stepped out of the tent, rubbing his eyes sleepily. It was then he spotted me. "Oh Zack! You're back. Had a good night out?" Obviously this guy had no clu e what I had been through. I mean hello! I happen to have battle wounds on me. Did he not care? "What happened to you? Did you get into a fight?" Ah! There was the note of concern in his voice. So he did care.

"Well, I guess you could say that," I said, even though I knew he wouldn't understand. His face lit up, taking my words as a sign of me being O.K.

"That's good," he said with a smile. "Well, we have a long trip ahead of us, so I'm going to go wake up Laura." He walked off, leaving Charcoal and I alone again.

"So where's Ted?" I asked.

"Pokeball," Charcoal replied. "I'm glad you're back. That Skitty must have woken me up half a dozen times during the night with her constant howling at the moon." I blinked, confused at what Charcoal was saying. "She believed she was a coyote and had to howl."

"Don't wolf type pokemon howl?" I asked.

"They do," Charcoal said. "But so do coyotes."

"O.K. then," I said, my stomach growling again. I got up and walked around to find something to eat. My master fell out of Laura's tent, screaming on about something. I wasn't sure what it was, but I wasn't all too interested. I eventually gave up searching after failing to find something to eat and returned to where the others were in time to see them packing up the last bit of thier items.

"Well you guys," my master said. "We all ready to go?"

"If it gets us out of this forest I am," Laura said.

"All right then!" my master said, pumping a fist into the air. "On to Pewter City!"

* * *

My walking had slowed down to almost a drag sometime later as we all went deeper into the forest. I was hurt, tired, and hungry. And Laura was now yelling at my master for being an irresponsible trainer, letting me look like this.

"Well excuse me for not having a Super Potion!" my master yelled back. Curse these large and sensitive ears. "Maybe we should go back to Viridian City and restock on supplies just to lose a couple of days."

"Well maybe if you were more responsible, Zack wouldn't be looking like he is now!" Laura shouted.

"Oh brother!" Charcoal said, rubbing his head. "I'm going to definitely have a headache before we get to Pewter."

"I'll say," Ted said, who joined us a few minutes ago. "The way they fight, they might as well be a couple of married bickerers."

"That last word wasn't even a word," Charcoal said.

"Whatever man," Ted said. "Had to say something, you know?"

"I hear you," Charcoal said as my stomach growled for the umpteenth time.

"Hungry much?" Ted asked.

"I presume that Zack lost to a late night scraping," Charcoal said. Drat! He knew something was up.

"Presume?" Ted asked, taking note of the uncertainty in Charcoal's voice, even though he didn't sound like he was uncertain. Charcoal just shrugged off Ted's questioning by looking up into the trees. After some looking, he finally found what he was looking for.

"Ah!" he said. "There." He pointed up to a tree, turning both my attention and Ted's to what he was pointing at. Skitty, well, she was busy off elsewhere doing Mew knows what. But my train of thought was more on the apples hanging from the tree rather than her. I licked my lips, saliva drooling from my mouth. I was so hungry, it was the only thing I could think about.

Charcoal walked over to the tree and climbed it, using his claws to hug against the tree. "They might not be much of a meal," he said, climbing up towards the fruit. "But hopefully a few of these will last us until tomorrow."

"If we even survive that long," Ted said jokingly, a small smile forming on his face.

Charcoal chuckled as he reached the branch. "You're a riot, Ted," he said, beginning to pick an apple. He suddenly stopped, his head glancing off into the tree.

"Everything all right, Charcoal?" I asked as my ears picked up a rustling sound from right up in the tree.

"Oh crap!" Charcoal said. "Guys. I think we just entered-" He stopped suddenly as a white needle shot out, scraping Charcoal on his side. "AARRGGGGHHHHH!" he yelled, losing his footing as he fell off the branch.

"Charcoal!" I yelled, sprinting into a Quick Attack. Charcoal landed on my back, thankfully. Due to my yell, both Laura and my master ended their bickering and looked to see what was happening.

"Charcoal?" I heard my master say, concerned.

"Watch out!" Laura said. I looked up to see where she was pointing to see a Beedrill fly out from the tree. By the way its wings buzzed, I could tell it was mad. We all watched as the Beedrill turned and swooped down towards us, and by us, I mean me with Charcoal on my back.

"Zack!" my master yelled out. I stood there dumbfoundly as the Beedrill buzzed right up to me and swung one of its needles forward, the tip of it glowing purple. I would have been dead right there and then if that attack landed. Luckily, it didn't, for Ted suddenly did his speed trick and used a volley of Fury Swipes on the Beedrill, marking it up pretty badly.

"Thanks," I said as the Beedrill flew off.

"No problem," Ted said, giving me one of those thumb up things.

"Zack! Charcoal! Are you guys all right?" my master said as he rushed over to us, checking over me to make sure I was O.K. "You didn't get hurt, did you boy?"

"I'm fine," I said, trying to reassure him.

"Why'd that Beedrill attack them?" Laura asked. "They didn't do anything."

"We're in Beedrill territory," my master said. "I read about how a pokemon gets defensive if a trespasser enters their territory. Sometimes they'll fire off warning shots for them to back off. Other times they'll just attack because they're like that."

Laura stared at my master, dumbfounded as he checked on Charcoal. "How'd you know that?" she asked.

"I'll explain later," my master said. "Right now, we need to get to Pewter City as soon as possible. That Beedrill Ted let get away will be back. And with many others, I'm sure."

"But we're still a day away from Pewter City," Laura said. "I vote we just hide out until we're sure the Beedrill are gone."

"We don't have time for that!" my master said. "We need to get to Pewter City right away so we can get to the Pokemon Center. Charcoal's been poisoned!"


	13. A Mission for Skitty

Chapter 13: A Mission for Skitty

I stood there, not believing what I heard. Charcoal... poisoned? It just didn't seem possible. I had always thought fire types were immune to poison, or was that grass types? Then again it could have been ice types. Great! Now my mind was elsewhere again. What was happening? Oh right. Charcoal poisoned.

"What do you mean Charcoal's poisoned?" Laura asked, panic rising in her voice. "He's a fire type. Fire types can't get poisoned."

"Yeah well Charcoal did," my master said. "Look." I looked up to see my master show the mark left on Charcoal's body. The cut itself looked like it didn't go too deep, in fact, it looked more like just a scratch. But while cuts are normally marked red, Charcoal's cut was oozing purple. Either his blood was a different color, or he really was poisoned. O.K. So he is poisoned. Fine. Happy? I'm not. My friend just got hit with poison and now he's going to die!

"Dude," was all Ted could say as he stared at the cut.

"We need to get a move on, now!" my master said. "Those Beedrill will no doubt be back. The further we put ourselves from them, the sooner we can save Charcoal."

"But we're still at least a day from the city!" Laura said. "We'll never make it in time."

"Well we're going to have to try," my master said.

"Wait!" Laura said. "Where's Skitty?"

As if on cue, Skitty suddenly appeared like magic out of nowhere. "Who called?" she asked.

"Oh there you are," Laura said. "Let's get out of here!" We all then began running in the direction we've been running before stopping to have lunch. I wasn't exactly sure if we'd make it to the city, but hey, we'd have to try right? Course, I also wasn't exactly sure if Skitty knew the dire situation. Her attention was focused on her legs now as she ran. Yep. She hadn't a clue.

My ears picked up a low, grunting sound suddenly that sounded a lot like "Zack!" I looked around, searching for the sound, but saw nothing or no one. Or was that anything or anyone? Is there a difference between certain words?

"Zack!" I heard the voice say again.

"Charcoal?" my master said surprised slightly. "Don't worry. We're going to get you to a Pokemon Center soon as we can."

Need... speak... Zack!" he said, grunting in pain. And all this time we were running. I'm amazed he was able to speak due to all that poison spreading through him.

"Charcoal," I said, running closer to my master. "Don't try talking. Our master will do everything he can to get you better."

"Zack," Charcoal said through clenched teeth. "Little... time. Need...Pecha... heal." He tried breathing, but it was ragged.

"Pecha?" I asked, but he didn't say anymore. Or maybe nothing more. Still that question of difference. "What's a Pecha?"

"I think he means Pecha berry," Ted said. "Pecha berries are used to heal a poisoned pokemon. If we can find a Pecha berry, we might be able to save Charcoal."

"Where are Pecha berries usually located at?" I asked.

"They can be normally found in forests," Ted replied.

"So we're going ot have to find a forest to find a Pecha berry then," I said.

"Uh, Zack bro?" Ted said. "Where do you think we are?"

I looked all around and instantly remembered where we were. "Duh!" I said to myself. "But which one of us will go looking for them? And how do we even know they're even in this forest?"

"We have to try, bro," Ted said. "But if those Beedrill somehow catch up, you and I are the only ones who stand a chance." My stomach growled hungrily and I could feel my speed starting to diminish. "Or maybe I'm the only chance. Hmm. This is a problem."

My mind was racing fast, so I probably didn't hear much of what Ted was saying. Him and I were apparently the strong ones in our group, so neither of us could leave to search for this Pecha berry, which only left one other person, and she looked kinda cute with her ears bobbing up and down. No time to get distracted. Besides, I'm not much of a guy looking for a girl kind of pokemon.

"Skitty!" I said.

"Nya?" she questioned.

"I need you to do me something. Think you can listen?"

"Ears wide and open," she said.

"I need you to go and find a Pecha berry for Charcoal," I said.

"Who?" she asked.

"Charcoal," I said. "You know? The fire lizard?"

"What does fire boy need Pecha for?" she asked.

"He's been hurt real bad by a Beedrill," I told her.

"I shall save him!" Skitty cried out as she broke off from the group.

"Try meeting us up ahead!" I called after her.

"Wait! Skitty!" Laura cried. "Where're you going?"

"Keep moving," Ted said, placing a paw on her leg to keep her from running after Skitty. "She'll be all right."

"Don't worry about her," my master said. "We'll come back and get her once Charcoal's healed. I promise."

As the two continued to run and began arguing over going after Skitty, Ted happened to turn slightly back at me as my ears picked up the faintest sound of buzzing coming from the left of us. "They're coming," I said.

"I understand you're concerned about Charcoal," Ted said. "I am just as well, but sending Skitty out like that was a bad idea."

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Because most likely everything you told her went right over her head," Ted replied. My face went blank then. I think I just messed everything up.

"Oh!" was all I could say as the buzzing drew nearer.

* * *

Why was I running? Where was I going? Something, something, pecha, something, something. What was this pecha? Was I looking for it? What did pecha stand for? Hmm. Maybe if I went back and asked that blue-ringed raccoon thing he would- oh look! Butterfly! I snapped my head upward to see a butterfly flying over me, it's wings flapping. I jumped in the air, trying to catch it, but it just went on flying.

"I shall catch you, winged cretin!" I said as I chased it, giggling silently to myself. Can't say how long I chased the butterfly, jumping up at it every so often. I eventually gave up chasing as it flew up higher above the trees and disappeared. I stopped and looked into the sky, seeing the pretty blue sky with all the oddly shaped white- Tree!

My attention was turned to a tree. It was a nice tree! I must climb said tree! My feet began to move towards the tree. My claws unsheathed. I cackled insanely as I climbed up the tree. The first branch I came to I walked all the way until I was almost at the end. Then I plopped down and stood quite still, staring, staring, staring.

My mind began slowly to put together something. But of what, I wasn't sure. As my mind slowly was thinking of what it was that it was trying to think about, it paused as my attention turned to a green, crawly thing on the ground below, crawling right by the tree I was in. I shrugged it off and returned to what mu mind was working on. Wait for it, wait for it!

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" someone suddenly screamed. I calmly looked left. Nothing. I calmly looked right. There were a bunch of yellow and black stripes in one spot. I counted. Five. And they were surrounding the crawly green thing.

Like lightning I jumped off the branch, aiming down upon the unexpecting yellow-black stripes, adding a "RAWR!" to my assault. The thing barely had time to turn around as I landed on his head, said head going into ground. I leapt off and managed to knock another one's head into the ground before they even knew what happened. Then, without even looking up, I leapt up into the air just as a white needle jabbed underneath me. I landed on an arm and immediately dashed forward, spinning around and whacking the third yellow-black stripe with a glowing, silver tail.

Wow! I must be stronger than I thought! I managed to down three pokemon in one hit each! Why's my heart pumping so fast? And why's my blood rushing? I was suddenly brought back to attention as I was suddenly hit hard, flying into the air. I gritted my teeth as pain seeped through me.

"Lucky shot!" I yelled as I flipped in the air and made contact with the tree, my feet gripping perfectly. I then leapt off it as the yellow-black stripe jabbed it's needle forward again, getting it embedded within the tree. I was on full concentration as I leapt at the other yellow-black stripe pokemon who was still conscious.

"You're dead!" he buzzed angrily as his needle turned purple. He fired while I was in mid-air. I was doomed I tell you! Doomed! But then, I began spinning for absolutely no reason. And somehow, by me spinning, I barely managed to miss the attack meant for me. I never saw the attack under me, for I was up looking at the sky when it did.

A loud scream echoed as I landed. My world went spinny! "Aha!" I said. "I just a-gotten you a-good! And now Imma gonna... do something."

"You'r going to pay for attacking my friends!" the yellow-black stripe said angrily. At least I think that's what his mood was. I couldn't be sure. I wasn't sure what happened next. All I do remember was ablur of grabbing something and whamming it on the ground several times before letting go. My senses returned and I looked all around at the yellow-black stripes as they all lied about the ground. One was hanging from a tree.

"Whoa!" someone said. My heart beat returned to normal and my brain was functioning properly again. I turned my attention over to the crawly green thing as he stared at me with big, round eyes. "That was so cool!" he said. Yup! Confirmation of his voice was male. "You're like... some sort of super cool fighter who protects the weak from bullies like them."

"That's nice," I said with a smile.

"You think you can take me back to my clearing?" the crawly green thing asked. "I kind of got separated from my mom and was heading back when those Beedrill bullies started picking on me. So would you?"

"Meh," I said. "Sure. Not like I have anything important to do."

"Oh thank you!" the crawly green thing said. Kind of creepy, but I followed the crawly green thing to wherever he was leading me.


	14. What She Came For

Chapter 14: What She Came For

"Here they come!" I yelled over to Ted as I spotted an entire flock of Beedrill flying right towards us.

"Oh no!" cried Laura. "They caught up!"

"Yeah. I can see that," my master said, still holding Charcoal as we ran.

"Zack man," Ted said. "We're going to have to ward off these Beedrill. We can't run forever."

"Yeah. I know," I said. "But what about Laura and my master?"

"We'll have to cover them," Ted said.

"Right then," I said, skidding to a stop and firing off a Psybeam at one of the Beedrill, only to have it stop short before it could hit. "That's not good." My stomach growled, causing me to remember that I was hungry and tired. I didn't think that my attacks would stop short or be that low. In short, I didn't have a lot of energy to fight.

"I guess it's up to me then," Ted said. "Zack, protect our trainers for me, would you?"

"If you promise not to get poisoned or die," I said.

"Promise," Ted said, cracking his knuckles as the Beedrill began dive bombing him. I turned back around, catching up to the trainers to outrace the Beedrill and keep them off them.

* * *

One. Two. March. April. Ho. Hum. Lol. Ha. Why was my mind on marching music? And where were these strange words coming from? Oh well. Continue on marching, following this odd green crawly thing. Or was he following me? Hmm. Oh right. I was taking him back to his family after saving him from a bunch of yellow-black stripes which- TREE!

I whipped my head around, staring at it. I don't know why but it beckoned me. And why was I having this urge to whack the green crawly thing with a stick while laughing maniacally? Oh well. Urges must be filled. I walked toward the tree, my claws coming out so I could climb it when that crawly green thing said something to me. "What?" I asked, stopping my approach to the tree and looking at him.

"My clan is that way," the green crawly thing said. "Why are you heading off that way? I thought you said you'd keep me from getting bullied by anymore of those Beedrill."

"Oh right!" I said, instantly remembering what I was doing before my urges took over. "Sorry bout that. Sometimes urges overtake me and then I forget what I was doing in the first place." Which reminded me, was there something important I was supposed to be doing? My eyes diverted to the left of the green crawly thing to see a branch lying there right next to him. Kind of odd for a branch to be lying there after I had wanted to climb up a tree. Wait. Tree. Branch. Tree. Branch. Tree. Branch. Yay! I made up a new word! But now what to do with it.

"I guess it's O.K.," the green crawly thing said. "Besides, we're nearly there. It's right around that big tree over there."

"Last one there's a rotten potatoe!" I said, running ahead of him.

"Hey wait!" the crawly green thing said. "Wait up!"

"You'll never catch me, creepy crawly green thing!" I shouted as I quickly reached the tree the crawly thing referred to, spinning around and sitting, waiting patiently for the green crawly thing to catch up. My mind blanked and nothing else was thought of until my attention returned, focused upon the crawly green thing as it crawled up to me, breathing hard.

"You sure... can... run... fast," he said between gasps of breath.

"Meh," was all I could think of, turning my head and looking at a rather tiny clearing. "So this is your clearing, right?"

"That's... right," the crawly green thing said. "I know it may look real small, but it's where my friends and I come out to play. Our parents keep watch from up in the trees."

"Tree!" I said, already climbing up the big tree I was next to. I quickly skittered up the tree and stopped just below the first treebranch. And there was that new word I made. I looked down. Boy was I high! The green crawly thing looked like an ant from here. "Hey! Come join! It's like you can see the whole-"

I was stopped suddenly as something very large blocked my view and began trying to knock me off the branch by scratching at me. Course, it didn't really hurt since the scratches seemed gentle. But it was enough, however, to quickly get me down from the tree. Course, then again, the thing kept bothering me the entire climb down. It wasn't until I hit the ground did I finally tune in to what it was saying.

"You stay away from this area, you hear?" it hollered at me as it flapped around me. "This is our territory. You will not harm the young ones."

"Geez!" I said. "Will you get off me?"

"Mom!" the green crawly thing yelled, stopping the assault raid on me. The thing that wouldn't leave me alone turned its attention to said crawly thing.

"Shring?" the now revealed butterfly said surprised. Odd. I chased a butterfly just like this one a while ago before I met this crawly thing. Why didn't I see the connection? "How many times have I told you not to go running off?"

"I didn't mom," the crawly thing said. "You're too fast a flyer. I just turned around and came back here."

"Well, I'm glad you're all right," the butterfly said. Weird how I manage to pay attention at times, eh? "And as for you, away from this place. I will not let you harm my son or his friends."

"But mom," the crawly thing began to say, only to be interrupted by his mom. Time to intervene.

"I saved him from the yellow-black stripes," I said. The butterfly turned and looked at me.

"What?" she asked.

"This nice pokemon saved me from some Beedrill bullies," the crawly thing said. "And then she brought me back here." He lowered his voice to a whisper and said something else, one I couldn't- Ooh! A tail. I must chase it! I winded up chasing said tail til everything around me began spinning. I didn't last long as I stopped chasing and kept my head aspinning.

After everything cleared up, which took a couple of seconds, the butterfly flew over to me and landed, staring at me. And staring. And staring. And staring. It was getting rather creepy. "Hey wait a minute!" she said. "I recognize you."

"You do?" I asked.

"I think I saw you chasing after me leaping at me," the butterfly said.

"Oh yeah," I said. "You were flying kind of low and I just had the urge to leap at you so I did and-"

"Yes, well, anyway," the butterfly said. "Being that you rescued my son from the Beedrill and brought him home safely, I think a reward is in order. I really don't have much to offer. If there's anything in particular you need, feel free to say what's on your mind."

So in other words, she'd give me anything I wanted, right? Hmm. So much to choose from, but what to choose was the ultimate question, I think. Maybe something with sugar in it. I did like sugar. I like it when I'm crazy! But then again, I could use something else to my advantage. A leash would do. Why a leash? I had no clue. And of course, I still desired a treebranch. Oh the people I could whack if I had one.

But then, my stomach growled and just like that, my mind whirled back to something the blue raccoon said to me. Something about the lizard being poisoned or something like that and having me search for a picka something. "There is something you could give me," I said, my mind now racing. "I'm looking for something called a picka, I think."

"A picka?" the butterfly questioned. "I never heard of a picka before."

"Sounds close to those Pecha berries we have, doesn't it mom?" the crawly thing asked. Pecha? That word rang a bell. Was it possible that this pecha was...

"That's it!" I suddenly yelled, startling the two.

"What's it?" the butterfly asked.

"That's what I need," I said. "I need those pechas."

"O.K.," the butterfly said slowly. "Wait here. I'll be back in a moment." The butterfly flew up into the current tree I was climbing, leaving me with the crawly thing. I didn't know what else to say, so I just started humming a little tune to myself in my head, looking around randomly. Silence occured between the crawly thing and I for several seconds before he asked, "Nice weather we're having, isn't it?"

"What?" I asked, blocking out the tune in my head as I turned to look at him as the butterfly returned holding a brown bag or something like that.

"Here you go," she said, handing me the bag, placing a loop over my head. "A bag full of Pecha berries to go. Put them to good use and remember not to eat them."

"Right," I said, trying to remember- oh yeah. I had to save the fire lizard. "Well, glad I could help you guys. Laters!" With that, I turned and began running back the way I cam, but was stopped short as the crawly thing called out to me.

"Hey!" he yelled. "You dropped one." I turned my head back to see one of the Pechas being thrown to me. I don't why it possessed me, but I used my tail and caught it, the berry setling onto my tail.

"Thanks!" I yelled back. "Now I can go use these on the fire lizard. I will save him!" I ran off, leaving the odd family behind, rushing past a bunch of trees. Man they just seemed to keep going. I stopped suddenly, skidding to a halt as I realized something I hadn't a second ago. I was lost! I had no idea where the handsome raccoon and his friends were. Guess I'd have to run around until I eventually found- TREE!


	15. Turning the Tables

Chapter 15: Turning the Tables

"Yikes!" I yelped, barely dodging a poison attack shot forth from one of the many Beedrill chasing us. This definitely was not good for me. I was completely starving, I had no energy to even attempt to fight, and sleep was needed quite badly. How in the world did things like this happen to me? I was pretty much the only defense the human trainers had at the moment. Ted was left behind to stall most of the Beedrill, dwindling down the numbers for me to handle. But the situation remained the same for me. Heh. Dwindling! That's a cool word.

I began concetrating what little energy I had to my mouth and pivoted my body, letting loose a very tiny Shadow Ball at one of the Beedrill. They all stopped momentarily as the attack hit the Beedrill I aimed at, barely any damage being done to it. In fact, the least I could say it had done was left a tiny mark upon it. The Beedrill brushed at the mark, laughing, the other Beedrill joining in. Curse my stamina right now. If I were at full power, I'd easily be able to take them all down and send them packing and maybe do a victory dance on my hind paws. Hmm. I feel delirious.

Back to the mind of matter, I turned and ran as the Bedrill once again gave chase to us. My running was slowing quickly. Not good. Those Beedrill would be on me in an instant. I turned my head to see the Beedrill I attacked dive-bombing me, a needle drawn back. I knew what was about to happen and drooped my ears, ready for the blow. But in that instant, just as the Beedrill was thrusting its needle forward, something surprising happened.

"Get away from my Umbreon!" my master suddenly yelled, smacking the Beedrill with a stick lit on fire. The Beedrill lit up like a piece of dry wood and fell onto the ground, shrieking in pain. I looked up at my master whose legs were trembling violently, staring down at the burning Beedrill before looking up at the rest of them still in the air. Now, I can understand where he got the stick. After all, we are in a forest. But how did he find- oh wait. Nevermind. Forgot that Charcoal's tail had fire on it.

"Are you stupid?" I heard Laura shout. "Those Beedrill will kill you!"

"I don't care," my master said, fear in his voice showing quite well. "I don't care what happens to me. I just have to make sure you and my pokemon get to Pewter City all right. Don't worry about me. Just get to Pewter City."

"But-" Laura said, only to be interrupted.

"Go!" my master said. "Now! I'll handle these Beedrill, even if it means risking my life for you." He looked up at the Beedrill who were obviously buzzing qiute angrily. I would be too if someone I cared about just got set on fire. They buzzed there for maybe a moment before they all came down at once, needles sharp and ready for the kill.

"Get going!" my master yelled before he began waving the stick of fire wildly, hoping to catch at least a few on fire. My feet didn't want to seem to move. Neither Laura's. I mean, how far would we really be able to get before the Beedrill caught up with us? I wouldn't last more than five seconds against them. Laura and Charcoal wouldn't last long either. All we could do was stare and watch as the Beedrill closed in on us.

However, just as the distance was about to be closed, a maniac laugh could be heard throughout the forest. Everyone, and I do mean everyone as in both my master and the Beedrill, stopped whatt hey were doing and looked around in confusion as to who was laughing at a time like this, even though the laughing sounded oddly familiar to me.

The laughing grew closer and, thanks to the help of my super acute ears, managed to pinpoint the direction the laughing was coming from, looking in said direction. My eyes could have bugled out at that instant at what I saw. Coming towards us was a very long vine that came from whatever tree that was close by. But it wasn't the vine that surprised me. It was what was swinging on the vine that did.

How she managed to find a vine let alone hold onto it while she laughed like a maniac was beyond me. But I could imagine the look on everybody's faces, the Beedrill were uncertain being that their expressions were hard to read, as they all turned and stared.

"Is that Skitty swinigng on a vine?" Laura asked weakly.

"I'm seeing it but I don't believe it," my master said as Skitty swung in.

"Hi guys!" she said. "I'm-" she went to say, but never finished as she swung right past us, all heads following her. I'm not exactly sure what happened next. Somehow the vine Skitty was swinging on began wrapping itself around the tree nearest us, Skitty swinging as well. We all remained silent as the vine finished wrapping. The moment it did, Skitty let go and flew like a rocket at one of the Beedrill, using it as a landing and knocking it out.

"Hi guys!" Skitty said, looking at us and... smiling? What goes through that mind of hers? A sudden snap snapped me out from my thoughts. Heh. Funny. All turned heads back to the tree Skitty swung around to see it starting to fall our way. Reason why? The tree was rotten and old and all that wrapping around must have been too much for it. We all just stared as the tree began ocming down until Laura finally screamed, which sent everybody into a panic.

I think I saw Skitty screaming and running around too, though I didn't think she knew what was going on as the tree fell down upon the freaked out Beedrill. The ground shook, causing me to stumble and fall. Forgot that I was completely exhausted, not to mention hungry. After everything seemed to have settled down, I heard my master ask, "Is everyone all right?"

"I think so," Laura said weakly. "What's going on? I just want to get out of this forest."

"So do I," my master said. "As for what just happened, I'm not competely sure myself. Skitty's back by the way."

"What up hommies?" she asked, walking over to me. "Hey handsome. Why you lying on the ground like that?"

"Oh no reason," I said, though deep inside I felt like that poor tree that just fell over. On the plus side though, the Beedrill were taken care of, though not the way how I wanted it to go. I glanced up at Skitty and noticed a pouch or something tied around her neck. Curiousity struck. "Hey Skitty. What's that thing tied around your neck?"

"What thing?" Skitty asked, looking down to the pouch I was pointing at. "Oh this thing. Right. I'm not sure. Give me a second. Oh yeah! A butterfly gave this to me."

"A butterfly?" I questioned, receiving a nod from Skitty. "O.K. So what's in it?"

"I don't know," Skitty replied. "I think it has something to do with a pick a something."

"Pick a?" I asked.

"I think," Skitty said. "I'm not sure. Maybe it was something closer to a peach or something. Ended with an A."

Peach A," I mumbled under my breath. "Peach A, Peacha, Pecha. Skitty, you got a pouch full of Pecha berries!"

"I do?" Skitty asked.

"Could you hand them to me?" I asked.

"Eh I don't see why not," Skitty said as she removed the pouch from around her neck, extending it towards me. I raised my own paw, reaching out to grab it. But then, the pouch suddenly fell from Skitty's grasp, breaking off the loop it was attatched to as it hit the ground and burned. As for the reason the pouch fell and burned was due to the fact an Acid attack shot forth from the tree the Beedrill were supposively crushed under.

Slowly turning my head, I stared at the downed tree. But that wasn't really my main concern. The main concern was hovering right above the tree, buzzing quite furiously. Should have figured that the tree wouldn't have been strong enough to crush them. That was good. Or was it bad?

"AAAAHHHHH!" Skitty screamed. "They've come to avenge their friends! I must do something about it!" I watched as Skitty turned and ran to go hide behind Laura supposeively. I don't know why, but I was suddenly absorbed in her tail. I liked the way it swished back and forth as she ran. I wonder why my tail wags while hers swishes. I'll figure it out later.

My eye caught something, however, as her tail swished to the right, something that seemed out of place. It seemed like there was something stuck upon her tail, something I'm sure she'd take no notice of, even if she were grooming her tail. Then again, she'd probaby just lick it up.

"Hey Skitty," I said. "What's that on your tail?"

"What's what now?" she asked, stopping and looking over her left shoulder at me as her tail swished to the left. "Oh hello? What's this?" She stared at it before realizing what it was. "Oh right! It's the Pecha berry the crawly thing threw to me before I left. Now I remember what I was supposed to do."

My attention was diverted to the Beedrill as Skitty ran over to Laura. They were pretty steamed now and really looking to kill. And we hadn't done anything. We were just innocent travelers making our way through the forest and they all come out to kill us just because they thought we were a danger to them? That doesn't make much sense.

The Beedrill came charging at me, acid flowing into their needles to stab and poison me to death. Kind of an aggressive way to kill someone don't you think? But luckily, just before they could land a single blow upon me, the closest Beedrill went up in flames. And no. My master was not responsible for lighting up a Beedrill this time. In fact, I really didn't even need to turn around to know who set the Beedrill on fire.

"You definitely took your time," I said, a smirk quickly widening on my face.

"It takes a bit for the berry to neutralize the poison," Charcoal said, walking up to join me as he swung one arm around in a circle while the other was holding the shoulder his swinging arm was connected to. "Yet I seem to be a fast recoverer. So, I miss much?"

"Not really," I said. "Just a bunch of Beedrill chasing us, Skitty being Skitty. The usual."

"I hear you," Charcoal said, his attention now on the frightened Beedrill. They may have been able to get the drop on Charcoal last time, but now this was completely different. Charcoal was ready. "So. Who's first?" The Beedrill all hovered back some, debating whether or not to attack. After about a minute, they all made the decision to turn tail and run, er fly.

"Aww!" I pouted. "That's no fun. Things were about to get interesting."

"Typical," Charcoal said. "The moment I get up and they all go running just because they can't handle a little fire. Cowards."

"Forget about them," I said. "They won't be bothering us anymore."

"Say where's Ted?" Charcoal asked after a slight pause of looking around.

"Oh no!" I said worriedly. "He's probably still fighting against those Beedrill he meant to stall. We got to help him. Come on!"

"No need to worry, Zack man," Ted's voice suddenly spoke seemingly out of nowhere. "It's going to take more than a bunch of Beedrill to take me down."

"Ted!" I said, relieved to hear his voice. "Glad to hear that you're alive still. Where are you?"

"Oh right," Ted said. "Guess I shouldn't be hiding." A moment later, Ted had appeared from behind a tree, walking over to us with that same, calm expression upon his face. He didn't seem to have one mark on him. "Charcoal. Glad to see you're among the living."

"Thanks," he said. "It's nice to see that the team is still together." My gaze wandered over to my master who was sitting with Laura and talking to her about something. I wasn't really all that interested in what they were saying. Maybe just about how scared they were and trying to reassure each other.

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I really want to get to Pewter City," I said. "I'm hungry, tired, and need a good rest."

"I could tell," Charcoal said. "All right. We better get our trainers a move on. I'm not really looking forward to being poisoned a second time if those Beedrill return."

"I'm with ya there, brother," Ted said.

"Finally!" I said. "Pewter City, here we come!"


	16. Strategic Preparation

Chapter 16: Strategic Preparation

It wasn't really until the next day that we arrived in Pewter City. In fact, I think I recall collapsing upon seeing the city. I was that out of it. And I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep either. Maybe it was due to the fact I was restless. Or maybe it was due to that stupid Sneasel killing himself over nothing. I wasn't sure. What I was sure about was that the next time I regained consciousness, I was back in the clearing right outside of Viridian. I was back inside the dreaded pokeball. But I guess it wasn't all that bad for once. Here I could relax my aching screaming muscles.

My head suddenly shot up, my eyes directly upon the pile of delicious berries sitting next to the tree at the edge of the forest. My stomach growled very hungrily. I ignored the aches and screams coming from my muscles and rushed over to the berries, gobbling them up in less than five seconds. O.K. Ten seconds. I had to stop, chew, and swallow due to the berry juice dribbling out from my mouth. But in less than ten seconds, the berries were all eaten and resting inside my stomach.

"Whew!" I said, burping as I walked over to the lake and drank a couple of swigs from it. Water dripped down from my muzzle after quenching my thirst and grinned, my tail wagging at a good pace. I yawned then, my eyes drooping. I felt my muscles starting to relax, so I took a few steps away from the edge of the lake before collapsing on the ground again. This time I knew I wouldn't get up. My eyelids drooped all the way down until they were closed. With a final yawn, I was out like a light.

When I awoke again sometime later, I felt totally refreshed. Boy that was such a great nap! I yawned before I got up and stretched out my cramp muscles. I immediately realized that all the soreness in them was gone, which would mean that we were at one of those healing places, which also meant that I would be called upon very soon. I also noticed that it was now nighttime within the pokeball. So did that mean that it was nighttime outside or did day and night cycles change faster than that?

My question was answered moments later as the entire pokeball went black and I felt an all too familiar tug bringing me out. I shut my eyes for a moment as my feet momentarily left the ground. When they landed, a whole bunch of noise hit my ears all at once, causing me to flatten my ears.

"You're a terrible trainer," came Laura's voice. I took a look behind me to see Laura and my master standing by the same table that we stood at before back in Viridian. Perhaps all healing places were like this? But as it was, my master flinched as Laura yelled her head off at him, again. "You let our only pokemon almost die and you've only just begun your journey. What kind of trainer are you?"

"I could ask the same thing," my master yelled back. "A responsible trainer doesn't let her pokemon run off and leave us completely defenseless." Now it was Laura's turn to flinch. So my master did have some courage to stand up for himself. I turned my attention away from the two and looked at my surroundings. The building wasn't much different from the last one I was in. In fact, it looked exactly the same.

My attention was turned towards the wall over to my left. Ignoring all the people who stopped and stared, I made my way over to the familiar orange scaled Charmander whose back was turned to me and his head looking up. My tail wagged happily as I walked right up next to him and plopped myself down before looking up at what he was looking at.

The thing we were looking at was some sort of paper or something filled with weird, colorful symbols. Knowing Skitty, she'd go on a nonstop rant about how colorful this paper was. And even thinking about it made me all the more curious as to know what this paper was. Turning to the Charmander next to me I asked, "What are we looking at?"

"If my assumptions are correct, I would say that we are looking at a poster of the Pokemon League," Charcoal said.

"Pokemon League?" I asked, curious to know more about this League thing.

"To put it simple, it's kind of like a tournament between pokemon to see who the champion will be," Charcoal explained to me. "Of course, in order to be champion you have to battle your way to the top. I don't know anymore than what I do know."

I stared at Charcoal, listening to every word he said. As he explained to me what the Pokemon League was all about, my heart began pounding and a smile began to form upon my face. My eyes shone with new interest as I knew what it was I wanted to do. "Then let's go!" I said, grinning with excitement.

"What?" Charcoal asked, turning to look at me.

"The tournament!" I said. "Let's go. It'll be fun to try to become the champions! Oh I am so rearing to go!"

"Hold on now Zack," Charcoal said. "We just can't go to the tournament like we are. The tournament is for the strongest pokemon that have leveled up over the months. And besides, we can't even get into the tournament without gym badges."

"Gym what now?" I asked.

"O.K.," Charcoal said. "I'll explain it to you." He went and opened his mouth to start when he stopped and I think tried finding the words he needed to say. "On second thought, I'll probably just give you the shorter, more simpler explanation to where you'll be able to understand."

"O.K.," I said, not really sure what he was talking about.

"In order for us to get to the Pokemon League and become champions, we have to travel across the region of Kanto and battle eight different gyms," Charcoal explained. "And each gym holds a badge that our trainer needs to win so we'll be allowed in to the League."

"So if we go to these eight gyms and win these badges for our master, we can enter the league and become champions?" I asked.

"That's the gist of it," Charcoal said.

"Then let's go!" I said, my tail wagging furiously. "Let's beat these eight gyms and get into the Pokemon League."

"It's not that easy Zack," Charcoal said. "We have to travel to eight different cities in order for our trainer to receive these badges. It will take months for us to travel through all eight cities and return back here in time for the Pokemon League to start."

"Don't worry about it," I said with a smile. "We'll do what we can and become champions once we're there."

"Zack, you are going to give me a headache," Charcoal said, pinching the area between his eyes.

"Chill out Char-bro," said Ted as he and Skitty came walking up to us. "Zack is Zack and you are you."

"And I'm me!" Skitty said smiling widely, looking at each of us before looking up at the poster. "It's so colorful! I must bask in its beauty of odd colorful thingies!"

We all just stared at Skitty as she marveled at the poster, entranced by how colorful it was. "Crazy," was the thought that came to my mind. But even then, I already knew that she was crazy. But then why did the word come to mind unless it was just delayed for several days and needed time to catch up. But then did that mean I was crazy too? I was glad my master decided to walk over to us at that moment.

"This right here you guys," he said, placing a finger on the poster Skitty was still entranced by. "This is what it's all about. This is why I started my pokemon journey. This is what we're going to train to be in. The Pokemon League."

"Yeah we kind of already know that," I said, even though I knew he couldn't understand what I was saying.

"That's right Zack," my master said. "The Pokemon League. But in order for us to be in it, we have to have eight gym badges from eight different cities. And luckily we're in a city that just so happens to have a gym here."

"Why are you speaking like your a spokesperson?" Laura asked. "You could be on the six o'clock news."

"Aw come on Laura!" my master said. "Why do you always have to mock what I do?"

"I don't know," Laura said, her hands behind her head. "Maybe it's because I like watching your temper flare up."

"Well guess what?" my master said. "I'm going to join in with the Pokemon League and beat all of the gyms."

"Uh-huh," Laura said. "Sure you are."

"You just wait and see," my master said. "We're going to go all the way to the top."

"Whatever you say," Laura said.

"I'll show you then," my master said. "I'm going to beat the Pewter City Gym Leader before heading on to the next gym." That brought a very good question to mind.

"Hey Charcoal. You know what the gym is going to be like?"

"Well, I would think that each gym deals with a different type," Charcoal replied. "You were in your pokeball while we were coming to the Pokemon Center. I took a look around the place and noticed that there were quite a lot of rocks and boulders, which led tot eh assumption that we'll most likely be fighting rock types."

"Cool!" I said.

"It's not cool for Charcoal bro," Ted said. "Fire doesn't do any damage to rock types."

"It doesn't?" I questioned.

"Not a bit," Charcoal said. "My best hopes would be to overheat them and hope they collapse from heat exhaustion, but that could take forever. But even then I doubt that would happen."

"So then what do you plan on doing?" asked Ted.

"My best bet would be to dodge and hope to get lucky as to find a weak point and win a quick battle," Charcoal replied. "Of course Zack won't have much of a problem since he's a dark type and rock pokemon are easily defeated by psychic attacks."

"All right gang," my master suddenly said, snapping our attention to him as he spoke again, all except Skitty. "Charcoal, Zack, let's go kick some butt at that gym and win our first badge for the Pokemon League!"

"This should be interesting," I heard Laura mumble under her breath as she picked up Skitty in her arms.

"I shall return later to bask in your colorfulness," she said as we walked out from the building. The path to becoming champions of the Pokemon League had only just begun. This looked like to be the most fun I could ever have!


	17. Fire vs Rock

Chapter 17: Fire vs. Rock

From the very day I arrived in the laboratory was the day I knew that it would only be a matter of time before I was picked to go on my very own journey with a human trainer. I have read and learned much of the human world when I was but a small kit, so I was far ready for the day I was captured to wait for my human trainer to pick me out. The only problem with being a Kanto starter was that the first two gyms that all trainers went to were the only gyms that I would have no effect on. Rock and water. I mean what's the purpose in having a fire type as a starter if the two gyms are going to be a great disadvantage? You may as well just leave us back at the lab where we feel left out of the fun and eventually- no. Can't think about things like that. Got to stay positive.

"There's something I don't get," Zack said, causing me to turn my attention to him. "Why doesn't our master just use me for the entire battle if we're going up against rock type pokemon? I can easily knock them all out."

"Humans are like that I suppose," I told him. "Or at least some are. Others want to use pokemon that have a disadvantage to try and make them stronger."

"So then which one are you?" Zack asked. "I mean if you were a trainer?"

"I'd probably go for the latter," I answered him nonchantaly. "It's more of a challenge for me if I try and learn a pokemon's weakness that has an advantage over me. You can only get a little stronger that way and remember the weak spot on other pokemon of the same type next time you come across one."

"Please stop hurting my head," Zack said. "I don't need to be confused before our battle."

"Chill out bro," Ted said, hands behind his head as he stared partially up into the sky. "You need to be like the sky and clear your mind of such confusion."

"If it helps me concentrate for the battle," Zack said as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath while trying to clear his mind. I'm not quite sure what it was about Zack, but ever since he joined up on the team I've been feeling a little uncomfortable with his never ending thirst for adventure. Call me crazy, but wandering off and finding danger around every corner seemed a little too extreme. Something I would never want, which is why I stuck to learning my opponent's strengths and weaknesses.

Speaking of opponents, we were slowing to a stop as we all turned and looked at a rather large boulder in front of us. And I mean it was bigger than any human or normal looking boulder. We had arrived at the gym at long last. I needn't not ever worry about how I would take down my opponent. I never had to worry. Whenever I entered a battle, only then would I be looking for a way to take down my opponent.

"It's so big and grey and so... boring looking," Skitty suddenly said, her ears and tail dropping. "Grey depresses me so."

"Whoa!" Zack said. "This gym is so big! But then again, every building looks big, so there's really no difference. But still, I can't wait to get into battle." I guess this is something I was going to have to get used to one way or another. I don't really know why Zack always looked forward to a challenge. I could go avoiding most of the battles if I could help it.

"You have to keep your head level like a bird in the sky," Ted said. "Listen and obey the commands given to you."

"Right," Zack said with a nod of his head, his ears flopping against his head. He looked kind of funny like that.

"All right guys," my trainer said. "This is where all pokemon trainers come to start their trek to become champions. The Pewter City Gym Badge awaits us. Let's go."

"So cool!" Zack said, his entire body shaking with anticipation. I've never seen anyone this excited in my entire life. His shaking soon became like a quake or a nonstop vibrator as we entered the gym. He looked like he could go explode from the inside with all that excitement at any moment.

"Zack," I said, his head vibrating its way to look at me. I couldn't even tell wher his face was. "Uh, you might want to calm yourself. You look like you could die at any second."

"I-I-I-I-I c-c-can't," Zack said. "I-I-I-I'm t-t-too e-excited!"

"Be like dandelion in the summer breeze," Ted said. "Calm thyself and collect your thoughts on teh situation around you." It was at this point Skitty turned her head sideways as she looked at the jittering Umbreon. It amused me how sometimes her curiosity would get the best of her and she'd do something random. Even as I spoke, she lifted a paw and lightly touched Zack's jittering leg. Doing so caused her entire body to jitter as well.

"Nya-a-a-a-a!" was all she said as everyone turned and stared.

"Hmm," was all Ted said as he stared curiously at her.

"Zack," my trainer said. "Calm down. I don't need you straining yourself before the battle."

"The same goes for you, Skitty," Laura said as she scooped down and picked Skitty up.

"I must do it again!" she said before looking around and becoming depressed once more. "And now I'm depressed again."

I looked at Ted as he followed Laura off to the side. "She's Skitty," he said, answering my thoughts. Like that made any sense. I turned my attention back to the battle field before us as Zack and I followed our trainer up to where trainers stood and gave their pokemon orders. Across from where we stood, a tall, bulky man stood on the opposite end with spiked up hair.

"So you wish to do battle with me, do you?" the guy asked.

"Yes sir," my trainer said. "I plan on beating every single gym and becoming the Pokemon Champion of the Pokemon League."

"Is that your goal in life?" the man asked with a hearty laugh.

"Since I was a child," my trainer replied.

"Very well," the man said, reaching down at his waist before picking up a pokeball. "Let's see what you've got for the league then, shall we? Geodude, you're up first!"

Tossing the ball up into the air, a flash of light burst forth, forming into the shape of a boulder with arms. "I'm ready to rock and roll!" he yelled. That was a bad pun right off the spot.

"All right Charcoal," my trainer said. "You ready to battle?"

"Even though it'd be easier for Zack to take him out in no time flat, yeah, I am ready," I said as I walked out onto the field.

"Huh?" the gym leader said. "A Charmander? You sure you want to use him in this fight?"

"Wouldn't be fair to just use one pokemon all the time," my trainer said.

"Suit yourself," the gym leader said. "Geodude, use Mud Slap."

"No offense to your trainer, but he's kind of an idiot," Geodude said as he slapped some mud up from the ground at me.

"No offense taken," I said as I dodged the attack.

"Use Growl!" I reluctantly began growling at the Geodude, knowing that it wouldn't do anything. The Geodude only winded up laughing at teh pitiful attempt I was putting up.

"You're trainer really is clueless when it comes to battles," he said. "Sending a Charmander out to defeat a rock type."

"You have to remember that he's only a beginner," I said. "So back off."

"Oh! So now I'm being threatened eh?"

"Use Ember!" About time he called out the fire. No pun intended. I inhaled deeply and spat out a small volley of fire at the Geodude.

"Defense Curl!" the gym leader said. I watched as the Geodude crossed his arms as my attack hit him. Being that I didn't have much fighting experience, I knew that this wasn't going to absolutely have any effect. "Are you quite done playing around with fire? Because as much as I like to stay here all day and keep this up, I have things I have to get done. Now Geodude, Pound!"

I ceased my attack and watched as the Geodude began doing his own version of bouncing as he came towards me. With each bounce he rose just a little higher. It wasn't until he was right in front of me that he bounced high up. And I knew with the way a Geodude was that the landing was going to do a lot of damage. "Dodge it Charcoal!" my trainer yelled. Could he delay my almost impending defeat? Really. Why don't he just tell me to stand here and take the attack?

But since I didn't feel like being crushed, I simply walked a few paces to the side, but it wasn't enough when the Geodude landed. The aftereffects of his landing sent cracks spreading everywhere, me getting caught with the cracks. I stumbled and tripped, falling to the ground. "And now use Roll Out!"

That wasn't a really good move for pokemon who were fighting against a pokemon who knew Roll Out. Roll Out was a move that no one would be able to stop. Maybe a pokemon of high power might be able to stop such an attack, if the pokemon who knew the move wasn't high in power itself, but as for the rest of the pokemon, we had a twenty-five percent chance of stopping the attack.

I staggered back to my feet as the Geodude curled up like a ball and rolled away from me, turning around in a loop and coming straight towards me. "All right Charcoal, do your thing," my trainer said. It was about time he allowed me to do what I needed to do. Being that I had barely any time to think about what to do, I did the only thing I saw Zack do back when we met. Looking down at the ground, I launched a fireball at it, sending me soaring into the air.

"Nice trick," the gym leader said as the Geodude passed right under me. Upon my descent, I stuck my paws out as I turned myself upside down. My paws hit the ground and as my body was following I suddenly pushed myself off, doing a semi-flip and landing back on my feet. How many pokemon would be able to do that?

"Your Charmander is quite interesting," the gym leader said. "He's the first pokemon I've ever seen have style in battle."

"Charcoal's one of a kind," my trainer said. I smiled, feeling happy about being praised by my own trainer.

"Well, I'd love to see what other tricks your Charmander has, but it's time to wrap this up," the gym leader said. "Geodude, Roll Out again!" The Geodude curled up in his ball and came straight at me again. And once more I launched a fireball at the ground, sending me straight up into the air. But my ascent stopped quickly as I felt a pair of hands suddenly grab one of my legs. I looked down and saw the Geodude looking up at me, smirking.

"Not pulling the same rick twice on me you won't," he said. My eyes widened at what was about to come as the gym leader shouted out his next attack.

"Seismic Toss!" I felt myself being twirled around in the air the very next second, everything around me nothing but a blur. I don't even remember my foot being let go. All I remember was flying through the air and smashing into something rocky hard, breaking it before landing in the pile of rubble. I lied there for just a second to process what happened when something heavy like an anvil suddenly dropped on me. I could feel all the breath leave me as I slipped into a semi conscious state.

It's kind of funny how you learn about something and then experience it. Reading about what you will one day come to face may seem like a piece of cake, but when you're actually out there doing it, it turns out to be a lot harder than you expect. And as I lied there, slowly slipping into full unconsciousness, I began reflecting on how I spent all my life up until the day I left on my journey. Sometimes I wondered what my life would have been like if I hadn't decided to read up on the human world. Would I have been in the predicament now? Would I have come to befriend the little group of friends I wounded up being friends with now?

_"You are weak,"_ a voice from within my head said. A voice that I was familiar with, but one I wish I would never hear. _"You'll never be strong. You'll always just be a small weakling who will always depend on others to help you in battles. You'll mean nothing!"_

I shot open my eyes, regaining full consciousness as I breathed in deep, ignoring the now crushed ribs I had earned. "Hey Charcoal!" I heard Zack yell out to me. "You all right?"

"I'm fine," I said angrily. "Nothing I can't handle."

"I'm amazed you're still standing after being pounded like that," the Geodude said. "So it seems you can endure more than what others think you can handle."

"You have no idea," I said, flexing my claws before clenching them into fists.

"Well, I don't think you'd be able to handle another attack," the Geodude said. "I will admit though you are a bit of a good battler, but this match is over." With another order, the Geodude curled up back in his ball and began coming at me once more, gaining more speed as he neared.

"Charcoal," my trainer yelled. "Just dodge the attack. We'll figure some way to beat it sooner or later." I refused to listen though. I wasn't going to run away and rely on Zack to take care of things for me.

"Hey Charcoal," Zack said. "Get out of there. You're going to be run over." But still I refused to listen as the Geodude rolled closer. There was no way I was going to back out of this now. And there was definitely no way I was going ot lose without making a mark on the Geodude. I could feel power surging through my body, concentrating all the power into my right paw.

The Geodude was practically right in front of me when I quickly lifted my paw, reeled it back, flattened it, and jabbed it forward. The sheer force of the jab stopped the Geodude's Roll Out attack as he yelled in pain, both his hands coming up and grabbing onto my paw to remove them, but he just didn't have the strength that I had to do so. It was then that I noticed that my paw was glowing silver. I had never had this attack before, had I?

"Geodude!" the gym leader yelled in surprise.

"Oh cool!" I heard Zack say. "You totally stopped that Geodude in his tracks. How'd you do it?"

"Looks like Charcoal's learned Metal Claw," I could hear Ted say. Metal Claw. Of course. Metal is a harder substance than rock, therefore it was able to stop Geodude's Roll Out.

"I think Charcoal just learned how to use Metal Claw," Laura said.

"Oh cool!" my trainer said happily. "Charcoal, you rock!"

"You know it," I said, looking back at him and giving him a thumbs up. However, all attention was once again diverted to the gym leader as he began chuckling.

"Hey!" my trainer said. "What's so funny?"

"Oh just a little something to make this an even battle," the gym leader replied.

"What do you mean?" my trainer asked as I saw the Geodude smirk. Not a good sign.

"I'll show you then what I mean," the gym leader said. "All right Geodude. Use Self-Destruct." My brain seemed to have frozen right when he said that, for self-destruct meant that the pokemon who knew the attack would instantly KO themselves, but also do some serious damage to the opponent pokemon depending how close they were when they blew. And unfortunately for me, I was in a very bad predicament.

"If I'm going down, at least I'm taking you with me," the Geodude said as he began glowing. My eyes widened in shock as I went to pull my paw back, but it was held firm by the Geodude's hands.

"Charcoal's trapped!" Laura cried out. "The Geodude's got a good grip on him."

"Quick Charcoal!" my trainer yelled. "Use your other paw and use Metal Claw to get free." But by this time, it was already too late.

"Oh," was all I could say right before the Geodude blew up, a loud banging noise going through my ears as my vision blurred into blackness.


	18. First Badge

Chapter 18: First Badge

"Hey Charcoal!" I yelled as I saw nothing but smoke and fire combined, resulting in a big blast that made my ears ring. "Charcoal! Hey! Are you still good in there?"

"I doubt it," Ted said, causing me to glance over to him. "Pokemon who get caught in an explosion as such range as that calls for an immediate KO. It would be something though to see Charcoal survive that explosion, but maybe just barely." I didn't really say anything as I turned my attention back to the battlefield as the smoke began clearing up. My eyes darted around, hoping to spot Charcoal somewhere. Unfortunately no sign of Charcoal could be seen, at least not until the smoke cleared up. Once all the smoke thinned out to where it was just about gone, it was then I saw Charcoal lying unconscious upon the ground. There was no way he was ever getting back up again.

Of course, some feet away from him was the Geodude who was also unconscious for blowing himself up. Well, it made the battle easier for me some. But I still felt sorry for Charcoal for having to lose out in that situation. But now was not the time to be feeling that. There was still one more pokemon left to deal with and I was the only pokemon my master had left.

"Not bad, kid," the spiky hair gym leader said as he recalled his Geodude to that infernal red and white ball. "We're evenly tied. But I doubt you're Umbreon will be able to defeat my last pokemon."

"Don't act so smug yet," my master said as he returned Charcoal into the ball. "My pokemon never give up until the very end."

"That's right!" I said, stepping forward onto the battlefield.

"Heh," the spiky hair gym leader laughed. You know I should really just shorten the name to gym leader. "You have spunk kid. Spunk and spirit. That's all what a trainer really needs in a battle. And I hope you make this battle a good one."

"I plan on it," my master said as the gym leader flipped another pokeball into the air, a giant rock snake pokemon looking down upon me a second later. I looked up, gazing at the Onix that stood before me. And then I smiled. Onix were so easy to deal with. I actually took one down once in less than five seconds flat. Then again it was raining and I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going and when the Onix came across me I got startled and fired off a Shadow Ball at it and-

"Zack, use Quick Attack!" my master said, snapping me out from my usual trip down memory lane. I really need to stop doing that before I wind up losing in some battle I'm in, like the one I'm in at the moment.

"Onix use Bind," the gym leader commanded. I watched as the Onix began snaking it's tail around me before it wrapped in to trap me, but I was too quick and managed to leap up on its tail. Then I began rushing up its body, readying a Shadow Ball. However, I must have been half way up when the Onix suddenly began shaking back and forth, trying to shake me off, which of course it did. And due to that my Shadow Ball completely went astray and missed the Onix entirely. "Now use Slam!"

The Onix turned about, spotting me in an instant and began throwing his entire body down. If I didn't think of a way to get out of this situation fast, I'd end up a pancake. Pancakes. Mmm! Luckily, I always had a way out of incidents like this. I concentrated on maneuvering my body through the air to where my feet were pointed at the ground as I formed another Shadow Ball at the same time. The moment my feet touched the ground, I aimed my head down at the ground, but at an upper more angle, and fired the Shadow Ball. Doing so caused me to go flying back out of range as the Onix's body smashed down onto the ground.

"Good going Zack!" my master said. "Now let's get in there with a Quick Attack." I narrowed my eyes as I dashed at the Onix, readying a Psybeam this time for a quick hit.

"Use Screech!" the gym leader said. The Onix opened its mouth as I dashed right up to his face and let out an ear piercing screech which caused me to flatten my ears against my head and shut my eyes. Yow that hurt! Stupid oversensitive ears! The screech allowed the Onix to headbutt me, hard. I actually flew into a rock and crumbled it. And it hurt. I loved it! This was what battling was all about! I opened my eyes, even though my ears still rang with that screech going through my brain, and smiled.

"This is fun!" I said, which must have perplexed the Onix, for he looked at me like I had lost it. I probably have too.

"Onix, let's start wrapping this up!" the gym leader said. "Use Iron Tail!" The Onix raised up its tail again, only this time it was glowing a silver color before it began swinging down upon me. Around this time I was getting on my feet and jumped to the side right before the attack could hit. "Keep it up Onix. We'll have the Umbreon beaten in no time."

"That's what you think!"I said in a singsong voice as I began dodging the attack by leaping out of the way. And so this went on for a good minute or so as the Onix tried landing a hit on me, only for me to leap out of the way in a kind of zigzag pattern. I wonder if anybody knew I was closing in on the Onix. The gym leader must have known for I was only inches away from the Onix's body when said Onix suddenly lowered its head and looked at me. I froze there, still smiling as I drooped my ears, knowing what was about to happen.

"Use Screech one more time!" the gym leader said. The Onix smirked, adding his own victory laugh before releasing the horrible screeching sound. And once again my over sensitive ears felt like they were about to bleed as I flattened them against my head. Only this time I kept my eyes opening, fighting to do so while I gritted my teeth. The entire time I was looking straight into the Onix's eyes, I had failed to notice that he was slowly wrapping his tail around me. It wasn't until he quit screeching and my body was beginning to have the life sqeezed out of me did I notice the predicament I was in.

The Onix laughed victoriously as I was lifted into the air, my ears still ringing and my breath diminishing quickly. I had to have a way to get out of this, and luckily there was only one way for me to get out. Now if only the Onix could turn me to facing him it would all be in my favor. "Looks like I win this match, pup," he laughed.

"I... beg... to differ," I grunted through the side of my mouth, trying to suck in any air possible I could.

"Oh really?" the Onix asked. "And what makes you think that?" All I did was chuckle, which somehow worked in my favor as the Onix turned me so I was looking right at him. "Hey. What's so funny?"

"This," I answered him, shooting out a Shadow Ball, which thankfully hit him in the face. The result of hitting onein the face allowed all pressure against my body to loosen, which I took the opportunity to breathe in a lung full of air.

"Nice work, Zack!" my master said. "Now let's work up a Psybeam!" By the time I had my feet back on the ground, I had a Psybeam all charged up and ready to go. I fired off multiple, short burts of Psybeam at different parts of the Onix's body, causing him to scream out in pain as he came crashing down onto the field, shaking the ground beneath us.

"Onix!" the gym leader yelled. The Onix slowly opened his eyes upon hearing his name and blinked.

"What happened?" he asked as he began to slowly get up.

"Not on my watch you don't," I said as I ran at him, concentrating all power into my tail before it glowed silver like the Onix's. I then leapt into the air and somersaulted right above the Onix's head before I came down tail first, smashing hard into the Onix, cracking the ground beneath where his head was pounded in.

"No!" the gym leader cried as I leapt off the Onix and back onto the ground. I looked back at the Onix who had nothing but swirls in his eyes.

"Nice... battle," he said before he was out like a light.

"Right back at you!" I said with a grin.

"All right Zack!" my master said. "You did it! Way to go!"

"Whew!" I said, sitting down on my bottom and smiling. "That was fun!"

"I have to admit," Ted said as he walked up to me while Laura ran to my master. "That was an interesting battle compared to the one we had, yet it didn't have much oomph to it like ours."

"Uh, yeah," I said. "Whatever you say."

"Well I have to say that you're the first of many trainers that have pokemon battle in a unique way," the gym leader said as he came walking down from his spot. "If that's the way you handle your battles you just might be able to win the Pokemon League someday."

"You really think so?" my master asked hopeful.

"I don't compliment just anyone for their hardwork and dedication," the gym leader said with a smile as the Onix regained consciousness and listened in. "You have the pokemon with skill and that skill could get you far if you know how to use it. So as proof of your unique skill, I bestow upon you the Boulder Badge."

"Uh, yeah," my master said. "Thanks. Hey Zack! Come check this out!" I bounded over, almost tackling my master over as I leapt up into his arms, which he wasn't totally expecting. Oh all right. I did tackle him. And he fell to the floor. "Oof!"

"Whoops!" I said getting off him. "Sorry."

"Didn't expect that," he said. "Check it out Zack." He held up what looked to be a small, gray rock. I placed my nose up to it to sniff. It had a sort of odd odor to it, but I didn't really care.

"Cool!" I said with a smile.

"Finally our first badge!" my master said happily as he stared at the badge again. "Seven more to go until we enter the Pokemon League!"

"I must beat them all so badly!" I said, my body trembling again.

"Easy bro," Ted said, placing a paw on my shoulder. "Don't rush things. You'll have nothing left if you rush through all your battles, not to mention your downfall for being invincible if you were to think about it."

"Is there ever a day you talk sense?" I asked as both Laura and my master began walking towards the door.

"Come on you two!" my master said. "I need to do a quick check-up on you and Charcoal, Zack. After that we'll head out to the next gym."

"Well if it means being encased in my ball again, then so be it!" I said as I bounded after them with Ted following at a brisk pace.


	19. The Triforce of Friends

Chapter 19: The Triforce of Friends

_"Hey Zack!" someone called my name out. I turned around, snapping out of the trance I was in, and grinned when I spotted my best friend Lizzie coming right up to me with Pooch right beside her._

_"Hey guys!" I said, my tail wagging furiously with happiness. "What are you two doing here?"_

_"Your parents said you were up here," Pooch answered. "What are you doing anyway?"_

_"Nothing," I said smiling. "Just watching the sun setting."_

_"Something tells me that that's not true," Lizzie said. "Is it Zack?" Of course she would know. She knows everything about me. And I about her._

_"You got me!" I said with a laugh. "You know I can't stay still long enough. I just have to get out and explore."_

_"Yeah," Pooch said. "The only time you do stay still is when you're asleep."_

_"And how often does he sleep?" Lizzie asked with a roll of her eyes._

_"So you guys just up here to join me?" I asked._

_"I'm not," Pooch said. "I just came up here to gaze down upon the pretend city I rule over below." That was one thing I have to say about Pooch. He was the type of pokemon who wanted to be stronger due to his size and weak strength upon other pokemon. I was in the same boat as well, me being an Eevee and all, but I really didn't care if I was powerful or not. Life wasn't all about being strong to rule over other pokemon. For me, there was more to life. And I had a feeling that that life lied somewhere out in the distance, in some far away place._

_"Pooch!" Lizzie said sternly. "I know that all the other pokemon pick on you, but that's still no reason for you to think revenge upon them."_

_"How can I not?" Pooch asked. "They just make me so angry. I just want something really bad to happen to them."_

_"Which of course won't," Lizzie said. "Look, just ignore them. They're nothing but jerks. What comes around, goes around. One day they'll come across stronger pokemon than them and they'll feel what you're feeling."_

_"And I hope to be there watching," Pooch said before he turned my attention to me while I had my eyes set upon the setting sun, staring off into the vast distance. "Hey Zack. You all right?"_

_"Yeah," I said softly._

_"Doubt it," Lizzie said, coming up and sitting right next to me. "What's on your mind?"_

_"You ever just have the urge to just get up and go to see what's out there in the world?" I asked. "I mean there's so much in this world we can all do and yet we're here, just sitting and talking and living in one place." Lizzie turned her gaze out into the world in front of us with Pooch joining in minutes later and together, the three of us all gazed as the sun was halfway below the horizon. After a while of silence, Lizzie broke her gaze and spoke._

_"You know," she said. "You're right. There's a whole lot we could be doing. But right now, we need to stay here until the time of going calls us." That's what I loved about Lizzie. She always spoke with her heart and mind and always seemed to keep Pooch and I in line, almost like she was our mother or something. Weird. "It's kind of like, well, like roots of a tree in the ground I guess. The roots slowly branch far underground over so many years. Sure it may seem like they stay in one place forever, but they're all slowly making their way to their ultimate goal."_

_"That didn't make any sense at all," Pooch said._

_"I think it did," I said. "Somehow."_

_"Please explain then," Pooch said._

_"I think what Lizzie means is that getting to go out there in the world may seem like forever, but with the roots growing, they eventually get to where they want to be. Or something like that. Right?"_

_"Close enough," Lizzie said as the sky around us began darkening._

_"Well," Pooch said. "I guess it's time for us to get going. Our parents will be looking for us soon."_

_"Yeah unfortunately," I said as Pooch and I began walking back down the hill we were upon._

_"Hold on!" Lizzie said, stopping us._

_"What's up, Lizzie?" Pooch asked. "Everything all right?"_

_"Well," Lizzie began. "A thought just came to me. If we ever do happen to one day up and leave without saying goodbye, we should at least have some way of remembering each other by."_

_"What you mean like a mark or something?" I asked._

_"Come with me," Lizzie said as she walked past us, heading down the hill. I looked over at Pooch who was just staring at me. I shrugged in response before following Lizzie down. The forest we lived in began to grow dark as we traversed through it. Or was that travel? Oh well. At any rate, the forest would be pitch black in just a short matter of time. I'm sure my parents would start to worry shortly._

_"Hey, uh, Lizzie," Pooch spoke up from right next to me. "Are we almost there? Because my mom expects me home right about now."_

_"It's not much further," Lizzie said. "Right around that tree and I'll show you." Both Pooch and I followed Lizzie around a tree and stopped when she slipped into a small hole at the bottom. Pooch glanced worriedly every few seconds into the forest, anxiously wanting to get home before it got too dark out. "I got them." Our attention returned to the hole in the tree as Lizzie crawled out from it, carrying something in her mouth that seemed to flail about in the air._

_"What's that?" I asked curiously as Lizzie released what she held from her mouth, placing them on the ground._

_"It's something to remember us by," Lizzie explained, referring to what she placed on the ground as I examined them more closely._

_"Cloths?" I asked, placing a paw on them to feel._

_"Why do you keep those things in that hole of yours?" Pooch asked. "Seems ridiculous."_

_"Actually," Lizzie siad a little softly. "I keep much more than cloths hidden in that hole. It's sort of like a secret hole that I store stuff I find that humans dropped. I know it seems silly, but all the interesting things I find around the forest I place in here. Just please don't tell. I'm only telling you guys because you two are my best friends."_

_"What's to be embarrassed about?" I asked. "Everybody has a secret they don't want to tell. I think it's interesting you collect things humans drop. We get to know more about the human world that way."_

_"Thanks Zack," Lizzie said, regaining that smile I always enjoyed seeing. "You're never bothered by what I do or say."_

_"What are friends for?" I said with a smile._

_"So what may I ask are these cloths for?" Pooch asked, looking up at us._

_"Oh. Right," Lizzie said. "These cloths are for us to remember each other by. Whenever we start feeling lonely, all we have to do is take one look at these cloths and remember that no matter how far apart we are, we'll always remain friends within our hearts."_

_"Cool!" I said wagging my tail furiously. "We're actually forming a friendship pact. So which cloth do I get?"_

_"Whichever one suits you," Lizzie giggled._

_"I pick this one," Pooch said, picking up a yellow cloth._

_"Guess I'll pick this one then," I said, picking up a red cloth. "Goes great with my red fur!"_

_"Zack," Pooch said. "How many times do we have to tell you? You're not red, you're albino."_

_"I don't believe you!" I cried out, looking up into the sky. Weird. Why did I do that?_

_"Guess that leaves me with blue then," Lizzie said, grabbing the last cloth with her paw._

_"So exactly what do we we do with them again?" I asked, unsure what we were supposed to do._

_"Like I said," Lizzie said. "Keep them. If you ever get lonely, just take out the cloth and remember the good times we all had together."_

_"Right!" I said with a smile. "We'll be best friends forever!"_

* * *

_"Best friends forever!"_

That last sentence stuck inside my head as I opened my eyes after taking a long needed nap. Boy that felt great! Then again, I haven't really had a great night's sleep since the incident with that clan I ran into. What did the pokemon in charge mean to absorb the power of a legendary pokemon to become more powerful than any other pokemon on this Earth? Let alone if it was even possible? Was it? And what was with the rule of dying once an opponent lost? That was downright cruel to make a rule such as that. But why was I worrying about that so much? It wasn't like I was going to run into them again any time soon, right?

I sighed a little depressingly, feeling a bit lonely stuck inside my pokeball. Oh how I so despised being stuck within this confinement. I wanted to be free, run around and explore some more. Perhaps allowing myself to be caught wasn't as great as I thought it would. I let out another sigh before getting up and stretching before walking over to a corner of the small cave I slept in. Neatly folded upon the ground was a familiar red cloth that I have kept with me since I had left my home clearing. It was the one thing I treasured more than anything in the world and wouldn't get rid of it for anything in this world.

Wonderful memories flashed through my mind of the great times I had with Lizzie and Pooch. I wonder how they were doing and where they were. It'd be nice just to chat with them, tell them of all the great adventures I've had since I left. My thoughts were interrupted suddenly as the cave suddenly disappeared, as well as the cloth. The area changed quickly as I left my ball and found myself back inside the familiar building of the Pokemon Center. "Hey guys," my master said, stooping down to our level and rubbing behind my ears. That felt good! "That took a little longer than I had expected. And knowing you Zack, I know you don't like being in your pokeball, but it's mandatory rules for a pokemon to be in its pokeball when being checked up on. So I apologize."

"Don't keep apologizing to your pokemon every time you put them into your pokeball," Laura said. "They'll take the advantage and turn you into a pushover."

"For your information," my master said as he stood up. "I'm doing some connecting with my pokemon. Treat your pokemon with respect and they'll respect you the same way." Laura only sighed as I turned my attention to Charcoal who was busy flexing his claws.

"You holding up all right?" I asked.

"A little more rest and I'll be better," Charcoal said. "Interesting how I learned Metal Claw at a most opportune time when I most needed it."

"Yeah," was all I said. "That was cool how you stopped that Geodude in his tracks! Sucks though he blew up."

"Well as I always say, learn from battles and you won't make the same mistake twice," Charcoal said.

"Interesting tactic," Ted said walking up to us. Where did this guy come from? Seriously. It's like he just randomly materialized out of thin air and made his way into any conversation. "You think that will work on your upcoming future battles?"

"I can't make any guarantees on that," Charcoal said. "All I can do is try."

"That's the spirit!" I grinned right before we turned our attentions back to our trainers.

"At any rate," my master said. "We got our first badge. Seven more to go before we enter the Pokemon League."

"And how do you plan to beat the next seven with only two pokemon?" Laura asked.

"I'll get more as I travel," my master said. "Just you wait and see. Zack, Charcoal, what say we get out of here and head to the next gym?"

"Bring it on!" Charcoal said, swiping his arm across the air. "Just as long as I get to strengthen up I'll be rearing to go."

"I'm just up for adventure!" I said with a smile. "But battling sounds just as fun as having an adventure. I want to make it to the top."

"Just stop talking," Charcoal said.

"That settles it," my master said. "Cerulean City, here we come!"


	20. Journey to Cerulean

Chapter 20: Journey to Cerulean

"I can't believe we're going to Cerulean City next," Charcoal said some time later after we were well out from Pewter City. As it were, the grass was already beginning to thin out while dirt began to gradually thicken as we walked for Cerulean. "Of all places, why Cerulean?"

"The way I see it, you take care of the hard challenges first, the rest will be but a breeze," Ted said.

"So we're going to Cerulean," I said. "There's not a problem with going there, is there?"

"Dude," Charcoal said. "Cerulean is home of all that is water in Kanto."

"Cool!" I said. "Then they should be easy to beat."

"I don't think you're getting the gist of what Charcoal is saying, bro," Ted said. "Take a good look at Charcoal and explain to me what he's like." I looked at Ted a little funny when he said that, but did what he told me to do anyway. I studied every bit of Charcoal right from his baby blue eyes right down to the flaming fire that was on the tip of his tail.

"Well," I said. "He's orange, scaly, has really cool blue eyes, and has a flame on the tip of his tail which I'm not entirely sure why it doesn't hurt him like that."

"You think my eyes are cool?" Charcoal asked.

"Definitely," I said with a nod. "Still don't see the problem with why Charcoal is against going to Cerulean though."

"Seriously?" Charcoal asked, not believing that I still didn't know.

"Yup," I said.

"So then it escapes you that Charcoal is a fire type and water can do major damage to him?" Ted asked. Ah! so that was it.

"Oh!" I said. "That. Right. Of course. I knew all along. I just made you think I didn't know."

"Uh-huh," Charcoal said. "Sure you did." I hung my head down in shame before hearing Charcoal ask, "Say, where's Skitty been? I haven't seen her since before the gym battle."

"She's been in her pokeball," Ted said. "She's always random."

"So why's she in her pokeball instead of walking out here with us?" I asked.

"Being surrounded in nothing but gray color depresses Skitty," Ted explained. "She'll remain in her ball until she's back to her usual old self."

"And how long does that take?" Charcoal asked.

"Not entirely sure," Ted said with a shrug of his shoulders. "Could be a few days, a week, maybe even a month."

"A month?" I questioned. "I probably wouldn't be able to handle living in my pokeball for a full month."

"Just joking on the whole month thing," Ted said with a small chuckle. "Longest she'll stay in her pokeball is at least a week."

"I think I could handle that," Charcoal said.

"Why's that?" I asked.

"Never mind Zack," Charcoal said. "It's just a personal thing."

"O.K.," I said, leaving it at that.

* * *

The rest of the day wasn't all that too interesting. I was quite bored and even walking around at night was boring too. So I wounded up returing to the little campsite we set up and fell asleep. The next day wasn't all that great either. We mostly began walking uphill, mountains surrounding us from all over. My heart was pounding hard for some action to happen, but I was let down big time with disappointment when night came again. "Ugh!" I groaned with boredom. "When is something going to happen? I need excitement."

"Why do you always want something to happen?" Charcoal asked. "Why not just sit still for a day and take in what's around us?"

"All pokemon are different in their own ways," Ted said. "Zack's blood boils for the thrill of adventure. Pokemon like him don't like to sit still for too long. Only when they're in the mood of taking a day off will they remain."

"Are there days when you make actual sense instead of saying words that confuse others?" Charcoal asked.

"There are pokemon who speak in a pattern that can understand others," Ted said.

"I understand half the things Ted says sometimes," I commented. "But can we please not argue about this? It's just who we are."

"There you have it," Ted said with a smile.

"What kind of pokemon have I ended up with?" I heard Charcoal mutter to himself, prompting a tiny, soft giggle to escape from me, but just soft enough so that Charcoal wouldn't hear. I turned my attention toward my human trainer who was laying in a weird blanket looking up at the stars, his hands behind his head. I got up and walked over to him, settling down next to him.

"Hey boy," he said as he moved his hand to rub my head. I have to admit, it felt good. "You and Charcoal did a really awesome job the other day. Charcoal got to learn Metal Claw and you just outright beat that Onix with thise moves you did. It was so cool watching the two of you fight like that. I bet not many people have pokemon like I do." A small, happy laugh escaped from him, causing me to wag my tail in reply. I was glad Charcoal and I could make him happy. But then he kind of got a little serious. "But still, that was only the first gym. We still have seven more gyms to go through before we finally reached the Pokemon League."

"Right!" I said, my tail wagging furiously just by hearing that.

"Oh!" my trainer said. "You're excited to get to the Pokemon League too, aren't you?"

"I want to be the top!" I said. "Or more likely us."

"Well," my trainer said. "It's going to be a long journey. And I still have to catch at least four other pokemon so as to compete."

"You can do it!" I said excitedly.

"You think I can do it?" he asked.

"Of course you can," I said with a nod.

My trainer only chuckled and rubbed my head again. "Well, guess we'll just have to train hard then, won't we?"

"Right!" I said with a smile.

* * *

The next morning was the usual routine for all of us. We ate a hearty, healthy breakfast, packed up everything, in which it was only my trainer and Laura. Oh all right. Charcoal, Ted, and I helped out too. It must have been about mid-morning or so before we headed out again. "What's up with all these mountains?" I asked. "They all just seem to be everywhere. But then again, so do buildings and trees and grass and dirt and-"

"Your face is turning blue, Zack bro," Ted said. I breathed in deep and smiled.

"Thanks!" I said.

"So do you seriously not know where you are?" Charcoal asked.

"Not entirely," I replied. "All I know is that these are mountains."

"That's good," Charcoal said. "Because we are in fact within a mountain range. And to get to Cerulean, we have to pass through Mt. Moon."

"That's the name of this mountain," Ted said to me.

"Why's it called that anyway?" I asked after a moment of thinking it over.

"Basically Mt. Moon gets its name from the moon stones that lie around this area," Charcoal explained. "And the moon stone can help evolve certain pokemon who can't evolve at a certain level."

"Like what kind of pokemon?" I asked.

"Clefairy are one kind of example," Ted said. "However, there have been legends that the Clefairy all came from outer space riding in a moon stone the size of a house."

"Cool!" I said excitedly. "I want to see this moon stone!"

"Chill out, Zack bro," Ted said. "It's like I said, it's only a legend that has been told time and again throughout the centuries that have passed by."

"Yeah but what if the legend is real?" I asked. "We could have an entire Clefairy alien invasion!"

"Oh brother!" Charcoal muttered. "How gullible can you be, Zack? A legend's a legend. There's been no proof that it ever did come to pass, let alone there being a moon stone the size of a house. It's ridiculous."

"You just wait and see," I said. "I'll prove how wrong you are."

Ted only chuckled right before my master announced our arrival. "We're here," he said. "Mt. Moon."

"Yeah, yeah," Laura said. "Let's just get through this tunnel."

"What's the matter?" my master asked with a strange tone and a smirk. "You're not afraid of the dark, spooky cave now, are you?"

"Of course not!" Laura shouted back. "It's just that there could be pokemon lurking around waiting to jump us from behind and make a meal out of us. And I don't want to end up an afternoon snack!"

"That's why we have pokemon for," my master said. "They'll fend off any pokemon that attack us."

My attention was suddenly diverted to the entrance of the cave as my ears picked up a small, faint sound. I couldn't tell what the sound was at first, but I soon realized it was the sound of footsteps the moment a pink, stout creature came walking out from within the dark. "Hey guys!" I said pointing. "Check it out. Clefairy!"

"Huh?" both my master and Laura said in confusion as they turned their attention to what I was pointing at. "Hey look!" Laura said. "It's a Clefairy!"

"Hey!" I said. "I just said that."

"Why's there a Clefairy exposing itself out in broad daylight?" my master asked.

"Seems to me like there's something wrong with that Clefairy from the looks of things," Ted said.

"Nonsense," I said. "Maybe the Clefairy are peaceful creatures who are misunderstood."

"Which explains why it's dashing towards us bearing its teeth and claws," Charcoal said.

I turned as soon as Charcoal said that to see the Clefairy running straight for us, its claws sharp and pointed and its teeth beared, ready to bite. "Yeah," I said slowly as I was beginning to realize that my assumption on Clefairy may have been wrong.

"DIE!" the Clefairy shrieked, leaping right at me.


	21. A Clefairy's Rage

**I actually meant to have this chapter up two days before Christmas, but I had other things come up that led me away from updating. But this seems to be even better updating on New Year's Eve. This past month has been very busy and somewhat stressful for me. First of all, my truck finally began quitting on me. The first Wednesday of the month was very horrible. The truck wouldn't start at all and when it did, it would sputter. I sat there for ten minutes trying to keep it going, even had the gas pedal all the way to the floor, but the truck still sputtered and finally shut off on me. Later on that night, it was discovered that the heat sensor clogged up, preventing the truck from starting.**

**The bad thing about it was that my parents were going on a cruise the following week, so I had to spend the weeked searchign for a new car. Low and behold I found one, an 04 Ford Taurus. Of course, after my parents left for the cruise, I found out that the catalytic converter on my car needed to be replaced as well as getting an inspection sticker. So I spent another week worrying over that until my parents returned and everything seemed to work out right before Christmas.**

**So now I have a running car that works great and had a splendid Christmas. I'm ready for this month to so be over! So I think that's enough of my problems for now. In fact, you could have just saved yourselves some time and skipped all this. But by that time, you'd be here. So on with the story.**

Chapter 21: A Clefairy's Rage

"Zack! Look out!" my trainer yelled as the Clefairy leapt at me, claws bared, ready to pummel me while I could only do was stand there. Why I was standing in the path of a rampaging Clefairy was totally beyond me. Luckily, however, just as the Clefairy was about to swipe her claws, Charcoal suddenly side-tackled the Clefairy, both rolling around in the dirt before Charcoal managed to push her off him.

"You just going to stand there and let yourself be killed?" he asked as he spat out a fireball, only to have it swatted away. I took that opportunity to hit the Clefairy with a Psy Beam, which only made things worse as it turned its attention to me. Yeah. Real smart. The Clefairy began to swing her claws wildly, leaving me with the option to dodge.

"Hey!" I said, dodging her wild clawing. "Calm down. What have we done to you?"

"You're going to pay for destroying my home!" the Clefairy yelled. "Die!" Wait. Destroying her home? What was she talking about? I couldn't think much due to her wild swinging. What was worst that all this time, I failed to realize that she had back me up against the cliff wall. By the time I had taken notice of this, her claw was aiming straight for my muzzle. It would have connected too if Charcoal had not intervened with a Metal Claw, blocking the attack.

"You need to calm down," he said. The Clefairy only turned her attention to Charcoal and began swiping at him, Charcoal having to evade the attacks at such close range. I don't know why I thought about it at that moment, but an idea formed up in my head. Being that the Clefairy had her back turned toward me, I had planned to leap over the Clefairy, grabbing her shoulders and flipping her over Charcoal who was now on the ground after tripping backwards on a pebble and receiving endless blows to his face. Propelling myself off the cliff wall, I managed to grab the Clefairy by her shoulders and that was pretty much how far I got. I wasn't sure what happened next. All I knew was that I somehow landed on my own back. Obviously I went wrong somewhere. That or I was so totally weak. But it didn't matter what happened for the next thing I knew, pain was shooting through my ears and the world began spinning. It went on for about a minute or so before I was sent spinning straight into yet another cliff wall.

"I'm okay," I said woozily as I tried standing again, only to trip over my own paws. I then received a rather nasty blow to my face, which somehow got the world to stop spinning. I shook my head and looked up to see Charcoal being spun by his tail before he went spinning into a cliff wall. If it weren't for the fact that we were being pummeled by a Cleafiry, I would have most definitely laughed my tail off. As it was, the Clefairy turned her attention to me and began rushing at me again. I did the only thing I could think of at that moment and yelped out a cry, trying to back away as far as possible from the Clefairy. However, my legs failed to comply with running away.

Just as the Clefairy neared to beat me to an even more bloody pulp, Ted miraculously materialized out of nowhere in front of the Clefairy and poked her in various spots on her body before spinning around back to back with her. The Clefairy actually stopped moving and stood there for about a minute before she fell to her knees and then her body crashed onto the ground. Everyone seemed to just stand there for a little while, all of us expecting the Clefairy to just get up and resume her attack, but as the minutes passed, the more everyone began to relax upon realizing that the Clefairy was most likely not going to get back up.

"Um," I said, deciding to break the silence. "What just happened?"

"Pressure points," Ted replied. "I didn't hit anything vital. Just the parts of her body that immobilize an opponent for several minutes. He should recuperate, so I'd suggest we try and straighten this situation out with him."

"Well," Charcoal said as he stumbled his way over to us. "Now that we got that straightened out, Zack, what the heck was that?"

"What was what?" I asked.

"That little battle strategy you had going," Charcoal said. "Not even I would have ended up like you did."

"Oh! Yeah. That," I said, feeling a little embarrassed before I began laughing. "I actually thought it would work too!" Charcoal only placed a hand to his forehead while Ted chuckled.

"In any case, we should do something about this Clefairy before he wakes up and starts attacking us again," Charcoal said.

"Agreed," I said as I went to go help out. Suddenly, I stopped as something dawned on me. "Wait. He's a male?"

"I thought it'd be kind of obvious," Charcoal said a rather bit slowly.

"And here I thought all Clefairys were female due to how they look," I said.

"Ugh!" Charcoal said, smacking his paw to his face.

* * *

Sometime later, we got our trainers to move the Clefairy over to a better spot and propped her head up upon a rock. My trainer sprayed the Clefairy with some odd looking red stuff and just knealt there, kneeling. "So what do you think is going on here?" he asked, looking up at Laura.

"How should I know?" Laura asked. "I'm don't speak pokemon. And here I thought you called yourself a pokemon trainer."

"What!" my trainer yelled, turning to her as he stood up. I basically turned my attention away from the conversation, mainly because I just didn't frankly care what humans had to argue about.

"So what happens if the Clefairy wake up and starts attacking us again?" I asked. "You gonna immobilize him again, Ted?"

"Not so much as I did," Ted said. "Just enough for him to listen to what we have to say." As if on cue, the Clefairy began to come to, looking around at first before he began to stagger up. Luckily, Ted was quick enough to place a paw over the Clefairy's chest, the both of them becoming quite still. "Calm down now. We're not going to hurt you, but you will listen as to why we are here."

"We're not here for anything," Charcoal said. "We were only to pass through and be on our way, but you just randomly attacked us for no good reason. What was the deal with that?"

"I don't have to explain myself to you," the Clefairy growled. "Go ahead and strike me down. Others will come to avenge for what you did."

"You mean destroying your home?" I asked. "We only just arrived when you came stumbling out from the caves and attacked us."

"I just said that," Charcoal said.

"Oh," I said. "Well we're good people. We wouldn't go about destroying homes. We're just on our way to make it to the Pokemon League."

"Likely story," the Clefairy said.

"Look," Ted said while the trainers looked on with confusion. "You don't have to believe us if you don't want to. The only reason I immobilized you was to get you to calm down. You were pretty out of it after all." The Clefairy remained silent as Ted slowly removed his paw and turned it over, extending it toward the Clefairy. "But maybe we could help you out track down the ones who've destroyed your home. We don't mind going out of our way to help out fellow pokemon."

The Clefairy remained silent as he stayed glaring at Ted before reluctantly taking his paw and being helped up. "Fine," he said. "You can help if you want, but I still don't completely trust you."

"That's fine," Ted said with a smile. "You'll come to trusting us soon enough."

"Uh huh," the Clefairy said.

"It looks like they made up somewhat," I heard my trainer say to Laura.

"No duh," Laura whispered back.

"So," Ted said. "Why don't you lead us to the area your home has been destroyed and we'll take over from there to find out who did it? I'll make sure the others follow at a distance to ebb the suspiscion you have against us."

The Clefairy only glared, but lightened up a bit. Ted sure was one smooth talker. Finally, with a reluctant sigh the Clefairy said, "Better than nothing I guess. All right. We'll go. You better keep your word."

"Of course," Ted said as he motioned for us to follow. And so we did, though at a pace, as we all walked into the cave.


	22. Light Stones

**Well I'm finally back after being gone so long. I've been recently having to write all this down at a library computer since Internet usage has been no longer an option, which is why updates haven't been happening. Strangely, however, I seem to have a signal in one section of my house that has enabled me to get this story written. Pray that this signal does not go away and I'll have plenty more updates to follow through. So please enjoy this story before Zack winds up at your place confused!**

Chapter 22: Light Stones

The cave was dark upon entering. Of course for me, I had easy see thanks to my nocturnal vision. As for the rest, they could barely see squat in front of them. They tripped and fell and screamed and- oh all right! They all saw perfectly fine thanks to Charcoal's flaming tail. There. You happy? I know I am! Yet there was something strange about the cave. My nocturnal vision wasn't working completely one hundred percent. It was sort of like there was light inside the cavern, though I wasn't one hundred percent completely sure. I'd probably figure it out later once I've dealt with whatever was going on here in the caves themselves. Back to the prior situation, Ted was up ahead with the Clefairy we met with, whom had attacked us and whom I thought was female because of his appearance. So if male pokemon could look like females, did that mean that they were really females dressed as males in disguise? It hurt my brain thinking about it, so I quit thinking altogether.

Instead, I decided to focus my attention to the conversation Ted and the Clefairy were apparently having up ahead. I shifted my ears slightly and tuned in so I could hear them up close and personal. "So how long ago did you say this attack happened in the caves?" Ted asked. "The one you claimed we are responsible for?"

"You should know," the Clefairy said. "You came trotting your way in here only yesterday and blowing up the cave walls."

"Indeed," Ted said, slightly confusing me. Why was he actually admitting to something we hadn't done? And only two days ago had we left Pewter City and barely just arrived here. So how was it possible for us to destroy a cave we haven't even visited yet? Unless time travel was involled and we had already destroyed the cave but coming back to our own time wiped out our memory of it. Wait. What's going on? Oh. Right. Conversation. "So is there anything you remember from the attack at all?"

"Well," the Clefairy said, pondering what he could remember. "From what I can remember, I was making my usual rounds around the caves, searching for any moonstones I could find."

"A collector of such stones I assume," Ted put in his word of thought. "Like a kind of hobby?"

"Something like that," the Clefairy said.

"That's interesting," Ted said. "So continue."

"Um," the Clefairy said, scratching his head for memories he couldn't quite explain, which made me start believing he was part of the time warp we were in as well. "I'm not sure, but I think there was an explosion nearby the area I was in. It took me by surprise, but I recovered fast and went to investigate the source of the explosion. That's when I saw a group of pokemon walking out from the aftersmoke of the explosion." Yup. Definitely time travel. I was totally interested to hear what would happen next, if it weren't for an itch forming behind my left ear.

All my attention was now focused off the conversation and on the itch that I had to scratch to relieve the irritation. For some odd reason I began lifting up my left hind leg to scratch the itch, yet I couldn't quite stop myself from walking. So being that I had an itch to scratch and I couldn't quite stop myself from walking, I started leaning my head back for my leg to meet halfway, turning my head slightly, only to catch sight of my tail coming into my line of view and right back out again. Then it was back and then it was gone. Then it came back into vision and was out and kept up a quite annoying rhythm, one I had to end.

Turning my head fully my tail was more into view to where I could actually try and grab it. The irritation grew as I continued to watch my own tail swing back and forth. After it swung away from my left side, I shot my head forward in an attempt to grab as it made its way back to the side I was concentrated on. Unfortunately I had forgotten all about my raised leg and winded up with that in my mouth instead. The momentary blank in my brain caused me to finally stumble and fall with my back end straight in the air and my leg still in my mouth. I must have laid there fro maybe about a minute, trying to figure out how to undo everything when I yawned, which released my now cramped leg, which I stretched to free all my locked muscles.

Breathing in deep, I slid my front paws out in front of me to lift myself off the ground and shake all the dirt off my fur. I looked up and noticed that both Ted and the Clefairy were turned around slightly now, looking at something behind me. Interested to know what they were looking at, I turned around to see Charcoal and the two humans staring at something that was behind me as well. Confused just a little, I turned back toward Ted and the Clefairy who were still looking in the same spot, turning back toward the other way to see that the direction of the three haven't changed. It was only then I realized after a few more looks that what they were looking at was me. And all I could do was grin happily!

"Zack," Charcoal spoke. "Do I even want to bother asking what you were just doing?"

"What?" I asked. "All I was trying to do was scratch an itch."

"And yet you somehow winded up with your leg in your mouth," Charcoal said rather slowly.

"I meant to grab hold of my tail," I explained, which sent Charcoal into fits of mumbling and grumbling. I really had no interest to hear what he was saying.

"Shall we continue, Brother Zack?" Ted asked as I got back up on all fours and grinned again. Ted only smiled back before turning and walking again.

"Say Clefairy," I said, speaking up.

"It's Cleft," the Clefairy said.

"Right," I said. "Cleft. I've been meaning to ask you something. Is there something lighting up this cave? Because my nocturnal vision isn't really working all that well for me."

"Yes," Cleft said, veering off the path a little, stooping down and picking something up. We all stopped again as he turned around and held something blue and glowing. I tilted my head to one slightly, curious to know what this object was.

"It's so pretty!" I heard Laura exclaim.

"What is that?" I asked.

"This is what we call a Light Stone around here," Cleft replied.

"A light stone?" I questioned. "Is that what's lighting the cave?"

"It is," Cleft said with a nod, placing the stone back down and resuming our walk. "That's kind of the other thing we do around here. We collect these stones to absorb the light from the sun. By daylight, it's a crystal clear stone right up until the moon rises. Then it turns into a beautiful blue color that illuminates the caves for pokemon to see a little easier in the dark."

"So it's kind of like your version of nocturnal vision," I concluded.

"Something like that, yes," Cleft said as we stopped suddenly, again. "We're here."

"Interesting," Ted said, examining a quite huge hole that was in the cave wall. "You claimed that the explosion happened here, correct?"

"Yes," Cleft replied. "I don't remember too much about what happened after that. I blacked out and woke up, staggering out to run into you lot. It hurts pokemon like us to see our home destroyed like this. And it's up to us to stop the culprits and put an end to their destructive spree."

"And you believe that we are said culprits to have done this sort of thing?" Ted asked.

"You're all a nice sized group of pokemon I mentioned earlier," Cleft said. Still definitely believe it's time travel. "And no one that lives here would do this for any reason at all."

"Yet we're out here helping you get down to the bottom of a mystery that has yet to be solved," Ted said calmly. "Kind of makes you think if culprits like us would do such a thing to go out of our way to help others, wouldn't it?" Cleft remained silent at that question, obviously confused by what Ted said, much to my confusion as well.

Charcoal moved ahead and examined every inch of the hole made while the humans behind me just gawped. "Was this hole always here or did someone recently carve it?" my master asked.

"Hard to tell," Laura said. "I'm no expert on caves."

"Hmm," was all my master said.

"You find anything, Charcoal?" I asked, walking over to him.

"Everything Cleft had told has been true so far," he said, lightly running his hand along the jagged edges of the recent gaping hole in the cave wall. Heh! Funny! "These rough, jagged edges prove that an explosion occurred here. That and the warmth still emitting off from the rock wall." Charcoal continued examining, making his way down inch by inch, stopping briefly and getting a closer look at something. "Strange. This section of the wall smooths down. No rough edges. Seems to go down a good ways."

"What do you mean it's smooth?" Cleft asked as he went and examined it for himeself.

"It means that there must have been a certain type of pokemon that could soften rock, like water or maybe even acid," Charcoal explained.

"But why would a water type travel through here?" Ted asked thoughtfully. "I understand Paras being partially poison, but it doesn't make sense for a water type to travel through here let alone assist in blowing up cave walls. There's a reason they're doing it and I don't think it's for the pleasure."

"It might be because of our moon rock," Cleft said, grabbing our attention.

"Moon rock?" I asked curiously.

"Prior to the moon stones, which are small and easy to carry, our moon rock is a gigantic rock that sits upon a pedestal we Clefairy worship," Cleft explained, talking kind of funny. But I'm sure I was just imagining hearing that.

"Is it like a moon stone?" I asked.

"Yes," Cleft said quietly. "Exactly like one, but only ten times bigger."

"Sure it is," Charcoal said. "And what proof of yours do you have that will make us believe that there's such a stone that size?"

"Follow the hole and we discover the answer," Ted said. "What say you?"

"I'm excited to see all my own!" I said, happiness overcoming me. "Let's go!" With that, we all followed down the path created by whatever group of pokemon made it, which I still assumed was us, but we were soon to find out. My ears straightened up again as I heard Ted and Cleft talk again.

"You all sure are an unusual lot for a group of pokemon," Cleft said.

"We've recently just came together as a sort of team," Ted said. "It's interesting to see just how we'll be able to work together and the team we'll eventually have in the near future. I'm one to sit back and watch events unfold." Cleft remained silent for the rest of the journey down. Ted's big words still confused me, so I just shoved them aside and focused upon what was at the end of the path. I'm not exactly sure how long it was, but it seemed like forever before we finally reached the end of the tunnel, brighter light shining in the distance.

"We're just about there," Cleft said. I could feel my heart race. Was this giant moon stone at the end of the cave along with the pokemon that caused all these nice sized holes? I was hoping both answers would be yes.

"Zack, slow down," Charcoal said. "We don't know where these fun blasting pokemon are let alone how many of them there are. We need to be cautious."

"Right," I said, slowing down my pace as we reached the end of the path. I stopped and stared up right at what was in the middle of the area we were right outside of, or rather inside, I think. If you're inside a cave looking at something that's also inside a cave, but you're not in that particular area, does that make you outside or inside?

"I don't believe it," I heard Charcoal whisper. "My eyes must be playing tricks on me."

'If they were, then this would most definitely be a dream, bro," Ted said.

"What is that thing?" I heard Laura ask, even though she and my master had no idea what it was. Charcoal, Ted, Cleft, and I knew instantly as we stared upon what looked to be like a gigantic rock that could set a new world record. Oh! And it sparkled too.

"My friends," Cleft said. " That is the moonstone we gather around to celebrate and worship its greatness."

"Did it also bring you guys down from space?" I asked curiously.

"Zack!" Charcoal said appauled.

"Shh!" Ted suddenly said. "Someone's coming."

We all turned our attention in the direction Ted was directing us to. My eyes widened and I could feel my blood starting to boil slightly as the culprits who blasted all holes in the cave came into view.


	23. Leader of the Element Clan

Chapter 23: Leader of the Element Clan

So here we were inside a cave staring at a very large moonstone that was as big as a… as big as a… well I couldn't really think what was big enough to compare it to the- Onix. It was a big as an Onix being that I thought back to my battle against him, but that wasn't what was important right now, for the reason we came walking into the caves in the first place, besides trying to get to Cerulean, was because we were attacked by a crazy male Clefairy and… you know what? Let's just skip to the part where the culprits that blew holes in the cave showed up in the room with the giant moon stone and gathered about in front of it while we were veered off to their left, hiding in the hole that was made.

Though I was practically looking over towards the group that had made its way into the area, my attention was more focused upon the pokemon that stood before them, getting a better view of him than I could during the night. Though I couldn't see that much of him I could tell that he was quite tall and that he walked upon two legs. It made me wish I could get up close and personal to see just what kind of pokemon he was. As it was, my ears perked up as he began to speak.

"The future," he began. "Those who control their own fates, their own destinies, can write the future history of the new world. And those who enter the new world can make everything their own world, a perfect world to your hearts content. There will be no more feeling afraid of the world, having to fight to survive, not even having to put up with the cruelty humans treat us as. For generations they have enslaved us, made to be rulers over us, but no more. Now, all of human kind shall face the bitter taste of us rising over them. This is our time to rise!" All around hoots and hollers went about in agreement with what this pokemon had said. I for one could not believe what I was hearing exactly. This clan leader pokemon was planning on ruling over the humans like they were some sort of pets? I mean I can understand pokemon being that, but in my own opinion, we are made how we are made, if that made any sense at all.

Once all the cheering died down, the pokemon clan leader continued on. "Now there has been some questioning over what possible reason this moon stone may be able to assist us. Allow me to explain in detail. Once long ago, some time after the earth was created and pokemon were placed onto the earth, a group of alien pokemon made a travel across space and landed on our planet. Their mode of transportation was none other than a giant rock made out from the moon, thus the name moon stone was given and the name Mt. Moon to these mountains."

A pokemon within the crowd suddenly spoke up asking one simple question. "So what does this moon stone have to do with us gaining the powers of all the legendary pokemon?" he asked. Several others spoke up in agreement with him while the clan leader remained unchanged, allowing the pokemon to voice their questioning.

"My friends," he said, his voice strong and clear over the crowd. "Allow me to explain how it all ties together. You see, by taking the moon ship out into outer space, we will watch as humanity destroys itself while we live safely away from the danger that is yet to come. Once all the humans have been purged, we will return and make the world into a better place. Any remaining humans found will be our slaves to serve us. Those foolish enough to get in our way will perish like the rest."

"Um," someone voiced up. "Would that include pokemon who have sided with the humans?"

The clan leader remained silent, probably interested in the question asked. "Having doubts are we?" he asked.

"It's not that," the pokemon responded, sounding quite feminine. "It's just that if we're all going to rule over the humans, wouldn't it be better if we had every pokemon from all over the world join us?"

"If only it were that simple," the clan leader replied. There are those who might stand up togther and wage war to prevent our world from coming to pass. If they are not with us, then they will most certainly be against us."

A low, but very quiet growl began to escape my throat. A lot of this wasn't making a whole lot of sense to me at the moment, but purging out all of mankind to create a perfect world was absolutely absurd and downright appalling one could say. Where would be the joy in wondering what the next day would bring you if you knew what was going to happen the next day?

My growls must have been heard rather well, for I heard Ted say in a low voice, "I take it you've run into this group of pokemon before, haven't you Zack bro?"

I turned about to see Ted, Charcoal, and Cleft all looking at me, all knowing the answer. "Unfortunately," I replied. "Remember back in Viridian Forest when I came walking out like I got into a fight?"

"You were fighting them?" Charcoal said, somewhat surprised.

"Not all of them," I said. "Just this Sneasel who chose death over living. I mean, who would die pointlessly just to keep from going back and getting killed off by this guy when he had the option of just walking away and living life?"

"We're going to need to know everything about this clan, Zack," Charcoal said. "What their goals are and stuff."

"It'll have to be later though," said Ted. "Now isn't the place."

"He's right," Cleft joined in. "You can't let them misuse the power of the moon stone. You have to protect it."

"So you now know that we're not your culprits, eh?" Ted asked with a smirk.

"I'm sorry for doubting you guys," Cleft said as I heard Laura ask my master what was going on in an almost non audible whisper, to which his reply was that he had no clue, but knew that it wasn't good with the way I growled. "It's just, you don't know what it's like to be ganged up upon trying to protect something precious to you and the place you're living in."

"You're right," Ted said. "We don't. But that doesn't mean that we don't feel. Trust me Cleft. Whoever these pokemon are, the three of us will do what it takes to protect your home and your moon stone."

"I suppose that means I'm in too," Charcoal said with a roll of his eyes.

"Right!" I said. "So, any body got a plan?" Fortunately, someone did. Unfortunately, it was someone who had absolutely no idea of what we were in the middle of. I don't know about the others, but my heart instantly stopped as a flash of white light burst out from a pokeball that was on Laura's waist, coming into the form of Skitty.

"Hi guys!" she yelled. "I'm back and ready for-" She stopped, examining her surroundings before sighing with a huff. "Great. More gray. I'm depressed again."

"Who's there?" I heard the clan leader shout. "Show yourselves."

"Not good," Charcoal said. "What do we do?"

"I got this," I said, running out from the shadows and into the light. As expected, all eyes turned upon me as I slowed down to a walk, looking the clan pokemon over. There were quite a lot of them here. Even with Ted, Charcoal, and Skitty being here, we'd still be at a disadvantage against this number. I eventually stopped, my gaze lingering over the group of pokemon I stood before, my eyes diverting themselves over to the group leader himself, getting a full view of him.

I couldn't quite describe what he looked like. He was tall, stood on two legs, had slightly big ears, but definitely not long as mine, and had some sort of weird facial hair right below his nose that curved down about halfway down his body and curved upright slightly. Plus he was holding something that looked like curved circles on a metal stick. Why he was holding them I wouldn't know? I'd have to ask Charcoal later. "So," I said, breaking the silence. "Hope I didn't keep you all waiting."

The clan leader remained silent, his gaze upon me, a smirk appearing on his face. "I have to say," he said at last in that cold, calm, slimy voice of his. "I certainly underestimated your abilities against the Sneasel. I should have figured that he wouldn't have been able to get the job done."

"Yet he sacrificed himself just so he wouldn't return here a failure, am I right?" I asked, my eyes narrowing.

The clan leader chuckled a most silent, yet heinous laugh, a laugh that made my fur stand on end. "You seem to have foresight abut who we are, but not much. True, had the Sneasel return, he'd receive punishment for losing a battle against you. Luckily for him, he met a supposedly better end. Hopefully he didn't suffer much as he would here."

I bared my teeth as he laughed again, snarling as I did. The clan pokemon ceased his laughing almost immediately and glanced at me for a second before diverting his attention over toward where the rest of the gang were hiding. "Hmm," he mused, observing everyone that was in my group. He was silent for a few minutes, smirking again. "Two humans, a Charmander, and a Teddiursa. Quite a unique little group you have there, bipedal creature."

Wait. Laura and my master, Charcoal, and Ted were all that he saw? Where was Skitty? I thought back to an earlier conversation I had with Ted about Skitty going back into her ball whenever she was around gray colors, so I figured that's where she must have been, meaning that whoever this pokemon was, she was not in danger of being known to them. "You leave them alone," I warned him. "This has nothing to do with them."

"Yet they now know of our existing clan," the pokemon said. "Therefore, they must be eliminated along with you." The pokemon then crossed whatever it was he was holding, a Shadow Ball being formed in front of them. My eyes widened as I knew what was about to happen.

"Look out!" I yelled, turning back to look at Ted and Charcoal as the Shadow Ball was fired, aimed straight above them and blasting the ceiling part of the cave. The Shadow Ball must have been powerful, for the entire ceiling came caving down. I watched, though, as Ted grabbed Cleft and jumped through the collapsing rubble, cutting us off from Charcoal and our trainers.

"Charcoal!" I yelled, rushing over once the cave-in subsided. "Charcoal! Can you hear me?"

"Yeah," came a muffled reply back. "We're all okay here. What about your end?"

"Ted and Cleft are fine as well," I shouted back to him. "Think you can make your way through this rubble?"

"Probably not," was Charcoal's reply. "We'll have to find another way around. We'll be there as soon as we can."

"Don't take too long," I said as I turned my attention to Ted and Cleft as they were both getting up. "You guys all right?"

"Perfectly fine, Zack bro," Ted said, brushing the dirt off his fur.

"Cleft? You all right?"

"I've lived through better days," he replied. Like that made any sense.

"Guess it's us then against all of them," I said as I turned my attention back to the clan. I saw the leader talking with someone I didn't know, mainly because they were behind the rock, but that didn't mean I couldn't hear.

"Shall we dispose of these three?" the mysterious pokemon asked. The leader pokemon simply lifted up his hand.

"No need," he said. "No sense in all of us taking them out. I should have seen to it back in Viridian Forest to take care of that bipedal pest. I shall make up for that by dealing with him here. You take the rest of the group onward for our next target."

"Yes sir," the pokemon said. "Attention Element Clan! Please make your way back through the way we came to proceed to our next plan." Ted, Cleft, and I all watched as the group of pokemon began making their way out from the cave, the leader keeping watch as they all walked out, stopping one suddenly.

"You there," he said, referring to an odd looking pokemon. I couldn't quite explain what he was. All that I could tell was that he had some sort of weird hair style going on in the back and… what was up with his mouth? It looked like it zipped up or something.

"Yes?" he questioned.

"I need you to help take care of the Teddiursa for me," the leader said to him. "I'll be dealing with the bipedal creature myself."

"Would you like me to eradicate the Clefairy as well?"

"No need. There's not much he could do anyway."

"As you wish," the pokemon said as he disappeared.

"Where'd he go?" Cleft asked as we all looked around for him. The next thing we all knew, Ted was knocked down, taking a hit to the face, yet there seemed to be no attacker present.

"Ted!" I yelled out, only to be interrupted by the pokemon I was about to face.

"There's no need to worry about your friend, creature," he said. "You'll be soon joining him in the afterlife."

"You can try," I said, receiving a sarcastic chuckle out from him.

"Funny," he said. "Allow me to introduce myself, so that you may know who it is that sent you there. My name is Destiny and I am the end to all things."


	24. Soul

Chapter 24: Soul

**Ted's POV**

I blinked rapidly, trying to register what had just happened. One minute I had been watching the group of pokemon we were listening in on all leaving the cave. The next thing I knew, I was lying flat on my back, my nose stinging. I rubbed my nose to ease the pain, hearing a quiet, malicious laugh all around me as I did. "Come, come now, Teddiursa," I heard the voice say. "Surely that wasn't enough to keep you down for good. Perhaps there's a way to provoke you." I turned my head over to where Cleft was standing to see the pokemon materialize behind him His claws were sharpened as he placed them in front of Cleft's neck. I watched as Cleft tensed his body, fearful of the fact that he was now held hostage.

"Correct me if I'm wrong," I said as I sat upright. "But weren't you ordered not to harm him?"

The pokemon chuckled maliciously through his zipped up mouth before unzipping it. "Destiny cares little what I do, so long as I get the job I'm assigned done."

"Guess that makes sense," I said. "But this battle is between you and I, bro. It's an unfair advantage using an innocent bystander as a shield."

"Which plays totally to my advantage," the pokemon said. "So long as I rid of you I won't have any more usage for this Clefairy. And the sooner I rid of you, the sooner I can resume my assistance to making this world better for those who deserve it."

"Unfortunately I'm not one to stand idly by and let that happen," I said, causing the pokemon to laugh once again.

"Well if you're not willing to let that happen, then why not attack me?" the pokemon said with a smirk. "That is, if you're all right with doing damage to this Clefairy." Cleft looked at me, eyes full of alarm and distrust at me. I didn't want to have to attack without having to hurt Cleft in the process, but I didn't see much of an option at this point.

I glanced out at the corner of my eye to see how Zack was holding up against this Destiny guy. The two seemed to be standing completely still, neither one of them making a move. I averted my gaze away and quickly scanned the area for something I could use against the pokemon to separate him from Cleft, yet nothing in the cave I looked for was good for usage of weaponry. In fact, the entire cave was made up of nothing but rock. If only we were in a cave with stalagmites I would have definitely had a chance.

I gazed up at the ceiling as I thought this, staring up at the rock that made the cave, an idea forming within my mind. There might not have been any stalagmites up above, but what I was thinking of was my only other option prior to the one that involved hurting Cleft just to get to the pokemon.

Focusing all my power, I began firing off a barrage of Swift up at the ceiling, giving it everything I had. The pokemon looked up as well, no doubt what it was I was trying to do. "Just what are you trying to pull?" he asked me as I kept up my attack, going all out. "If all you're trying to do is buy time, then I'm afraid you're just wasting your time. I guess you don't really care about this Clefairy's life after all."

My time was out as the pokemon drew back his claw to stab Cleft in the side of his neck, yet I didn't let up my attack one bit. "Please!" I thought as I continued . "Please break!" My thoughts were almost immediately answered as the bedrock cracked, loose debris falling down upon Cleft and the pokemon, the latter of whom looked up wondering what was falling on him. His eyes instantly widened as he figured out what I was doing. Unfortunately, he was a little late in dodging as the rocks came falling down.

By this time, however, I had already crouched down into a running position and dashed forward, grabbing Cleft and jumping out of the way of the rocks as they landed upon the pokemon.

"You all right?" I asked Cleft who looked a little shaken.

"Y-Yeah," he replied. "I think I am."

"You may want to duck out of the way," I said as I looked at where the rocks fell. "I got a bad feeling that this isn't over."

A sinister laugh answered my suspicions as the pokemon materialized right in front of the rocks. "You're certainly right about that, Teddiursa," he said. "It will take more than a bunch of rocks to do me in."

"Take cover," I ordered Cleft. "Now!" Cleft didn't need to be told twice as he ran out of harm's way, leaving me alone with the pokemon. "So assuming that you survived being crushed, I'd say you're a ghost type."

"Check out the brains on you," the pokemon said. "Nothing gets by you. But yes. I am a ghost. My name is Soul and yours will soon no longer be in this world."

"I highly doubt that," I said. "Perhaps we could stop and talk about this whole world domination thing."

"Oh?" Soul said. "How so?"

"Well for one, I think it's rather ridiculous that'd you want to eradicate all humans from this world," I replied. "People and pokemon alike should never be underestimated."

"Well unfortunately for you Teddiursa, I'm not much one for talk," Soul said. "I could care less about humans actually. They all deserve to die, much like how you are going to be."

"You don't have to do this, you know," I said, giving him one final chance to walk away. "Perhaps if you join up with us you can understand by what I mean."

"Ha!" Soul said snidely. "As if."

I sighed. "Have it your way then," I said as I got into my usual position to up my speed. Soul just remained standing there as I leaned forward and shot right up to him, catching him by surprise. I clenched my fist and swung it forward, hitting him straight in the face, or so I thought. My fist did end up hitting something, but it wasn't Soul that I hit. Rather, it was the rocks that I broke off from the ceiling, smashing it into pieces. My eyes widened, surprised by the fact that he disappeared. I heard his chuckling from behind me as he reappeared where I was standing just a few seconds ago.

"My, my," he said. "For someone who finds out what type a pokemon is, you certainly don't know a lot, do you? Normal attacks don't do a thing to me, so your little punch was all for nothing."

"Well then," I said, turning to face him. "I guess I'll just have to find a way to beat you. There's bound to be a weakness for all types, after all, bro."

Soul chuckled. "Quite true," he said. "Unfortunately none of your attacks will work on me. Normal attacks such as yours is ineffective against ghost types like me."

"Which makes beating you all the more challenging," I said with a smirk. Soul's eyes widened just a little, not expecting an answer such as that. He made a quick recover though, adding another one of his malicious chuckles to his amusement.

"You certainly amuse me, Teddiursa," he said. "But just what can you do against someone who has an advantage over you?"

"That's something I'll have to find out," I said, causing Soul to scowl.

"You think you're pretty funny, don't you Teddiursa?" Soul said. "Well I'll do you a favor and wipe that smug look off your face." With that, Soul disappeared into thin air, becoming intangible. I darted my eyes around, searching for any sign of him, though saw nothing out of place. My attention shifted over back to Zack to see how his battle was going. I saw him leap at Destiny from behind, shooting out a barrage of Swift at him. That was all I saw a blackish purple ball collided directly with my face, yet again. The impact of the explosion knocked me right onto my back. I just seemed to be having bad luck with Shadow Balls lately.

I barely had time to register anything else that happened when Soul appeared right above me, smiling quite evilly. My eyes widened, feeling something bad was about to happen as he held both his hands in front of him and released quite a powerful electric wave. I felt my entire body tense, all my muscles lock as electricity surged through my body. I clenched my teeth together rather than open my mouth and scream, all to endure the pain. I could barely see Soul laughing, enjoying the pain I was in.

Even after the attack ceased, my body refused to move, the electricity lingering upon my body, a rather means of paralysis kicking in. "You may have gotten in a few smart alec sentences, but I'm the one having the last laugh," Soul said, chuckling. "I told you from the beginning that you wouldn't stand a chance against me."

I was panting hard by now, and the fight had barely even started. "Yeah, well, I guess that makes me stubborn," I said, trying to move an arm.

"Indeed," Soul said, arms crossed. "A shame I have to kill you. You're quite interesting."

A small chuckle escaped me, a small smile tugging at the corner of my mouth. "I don't see any reason why you should have to," I grunted, powering up an attack. "You still have the option of walking away."

"I don't think you understand," Soul said. "This is something I enjoy doing, all for the sake of Destiny." I fired off a Swift attack of my own right then, the stars hitting Soul directly before going right though him. "Was that the best you got?" he asked as I ceased my attack. "Perhaps my Shock Wave hadn't shocked some sense into you!" He rounded another round of Shock Wave, but by this time, depsite my screaming, aching muscles, I managed to up myself on my hands and propel myself away from the attack just as it hit, collapsing on my knees as I landed.

"Impressive!" Soul said. "But let's see how well you'll dodge this." I turned slightly, seeing blue fireballs forming in his hands. "Will-O-Wisp!" From paralysis to being burned. This was definitely not going well. Thinknig about how to survive this attack, I grabbed a piece of the rock I had smashed and used it as a shield against the incoming fireballs, the fire dispersing as they hit.

"You're a little slow, aren't you, Teddiursa?" Soul asked from behind me. I had been so focused keeping myself from being burned that I forgot he could rematerialize anywhere he wanted to. I couldn't even move as he fired off another Shock Wave. Again I felt my body lock up as electricity surged through me. The rock I was holding crumbled apart as I dug my claws into them. I wasn't even sure how long Soul went on with his attack. By the time he was done, I wasn't even sure he had stopped. I suppose it wasn't until I fell forward, catching myself, that I realized he had stopped his attack. By this time though, I was panting very hard, trying to hold myself up, even though my arms were about to give out. I felt completely drained of energy and my body wasn't responding to movement.

I heard Soul chuckle evilly from behind me while I strained to keep myself from losing consciousness. "You're not looking so well, Teddiursa," he said. "What's the matter? Did I shock you to your system?" As he laughed at his own joke, my pants began to turn into growls of anger. I began baring my teeth, clenching them hard while my paw balled up into a fist. I felt a very familiar feeling I haven't felt in such a long time, causing me to realize just what path I was about to go down again.

"Calm down," I thought to myself, trying to surpress the anger that was trying to force its way out. "Don't loose control of all those years of surpressment. I must remain in control of myself." I shut my eyes and began clearing all my thoughts of everything, taking a deep breath in and letting it out as I began to relax myself, leaving the area of the cave I was in, floating in nothingness. I was at peace with myself, feeling the anger subside until it was no longer bubbling to surface. Once I was relaxed enough, my mind emptied, I began thinking of attacks I had that would beat Soul. Unfortunately, not one thought seemed to be coming to mind. I eventually broke out from my state of mind as Soul spoke.

"Finally thinking of giving up?" he asked. "Wise decision. Unfortunately it's too late to choose that option. You made the decision to fight me, so now I think it's time to get serious and wrap this fight up." I heard him starting to charge up an attack, a finishing move to do me in, but what he didn't know was that this fight was only beginning. Ever so slowly, I stood up, eyes still closed, waiting for the right moment to make my move. "I wouldn't bother. This is it for you." I opened my eyes about halfway, smiling as I was ready. I listened carefully as Soul launched his attack at me, laughing once again, but his laughter was about to end as everything suddenly blurred. I really couldn't quite explain what had just happened, but before I knew it, I was behind Soul, the beam he fired sending up rock and debris where I had recently stood. "Huh? What the-! Where'd he go?"

"You know it's funny," I said, no doubt catching his attention. "You never know what just might happen in a battle. Say for instance, your opponent learning a new attack." And it was true. I had tapped into a new power I never thought I would learn as I rammed Soul hard in the back, sending him flying into the wall. The look of surprise on his face was, I imagined, one of surprise as he went face first into the wall. "Never assume victory unless you know for sure that it's yours, bro."

Soul slid down onto the ground, lying there for several seconds before slowly getting up. I just stood and watched as he abruptly turned about, eyes glaring daggers at me. "Never in my whole life would I expect a normal type to do damage to me. You're going to pay for that, Teddiursa."

"You can try," I said, ready to use the attack again.

"You know I'm really tired of your smart ass remarks," Soul said angrily. "I'll make you eat those words." I only smiled more as Soul went to make his move. That smile was lost almost instantly within the next second. All i remembered next was a very loud explosion ringing through my ears and everything going white.


	25. Zack vs Destiny

Chapter 25: Zack vs. Destiny

Destiny. The name seemed to have rang a bell somewhere, almost like I heard it somewhere before. Well, maybe not the whole name entirely, but like part of his name, spoken by the last pokemon of his I had encountered. And the only pokemon I could have possibly heard it from was none other than the Sneasel who had tried to kill me back in Viridian Forest. And now here I was standing before the very pokemon the Sneasel had meant to mention right before the tree crushed him. He seemed a lot bigger up close now that I was face to face with him. But right now, I had to keep my focus upon him so as not to lose.

"End of all things, you say?" I questioned. "What makes you think you can just do what you want and change the world into your liking?"

"Think about it, quadruped," Destiny said.

"Why do you think pokemon were giving unique abilities over humans? So that they could live as pets, never knowing what a battle is like? Or perhaps to be used as a means of fulfilling battles humans themselves couldn't do? Of course, if you thought about it, if humans were to fight one another, civilizations would instantly fall apart, shaping the world into an age of war and destruction."

"Enough!" I said quite calmly. "If I wanted to be talked to death, I would have found a small room for us to sit in."

Destiny chuckled. "Amusing, quadruped. If you wish to die, then I shall grant you that request." I immediately got into a battle stance as Destiny's eyes glowed blue. I wasn't exactly sure what attack he was using, but after a couple of minutes of nothing happening, the blue glow faded out, a look of uncertainty crossing Destiny's face. "Odd," I heard him murmur before the blue glow returned in his eyes. I took this chance to do a quick glance back to see how Ted was fairing. At the moment, he was using his Swift upon the pokemon he was fighting, aiming upward at an angle.

I returned my attention to Destiny as the blue glow in his eyes returned to normal again. "Interesting," he said. "Somehow you must have done some special training to resist being affected against my Psychic attack." What was he talking about? What was this psychic nonsense he was talking about? It didn't really matter though. What did matter was that Destiny's guard was down, providing me with a perfect opportunity to strike. Smiling, I quickly formed a Shadow Ball within my mouth and fired it at Destiny.

Caught slightly by surprised, Destiny used the things he was holding to bat the attack away, but by that time, I was already charging following the attack, readying an Iron Tail. The moment he batted my Shadow Ball away, I had already leapt at him, twisting my hind end to whack him hard. Unfortunately my tail winded up hitting a green looking barrier, my tail bouncing off before landing on my feet.

"I must admit, quadruped," Destiny said as the green barrier faded. "You definitely took me by surprise. Your speed is quite impressive. You might actually be worth something by joining us."

"Love the offer, but I think I'll pass," I said. "World domination isn't really my style."

"A shame, quadruped," Destiny said. "I feel that you would make a great addition to the team. I shall leave the offer open if you ever change your mind."

"Like I said," I said. "Not interested. I'm amazed how something like that can go right past your head and not even register the words being spoken to you."

"Be careful how you speak to me, quadruped," Destiny warned me. "No one ever dares speaks to me like that and gets away with it."

"Watch me," I said with a smirk.

"Don't be so cocky," Destiny said, crossing the objects and forming a Shadow Ball. "Just because my psychic abilities don't work on you doesn't mean that other attacks can't." Destiny fired the Shadow Ball at me, but I easily stepped to the side, avoiding the attack.

"That was it?" I asked. "After all that big talk, you fire one little attack and-" I stopped myself mid-sentence, noticing that Destiny's eyes were glowing blue and he was smiling. Why was he smiling? And why were his eyes glowing blue? I had a very bad feeling that the attack was making a comeback, so I could only turn my head just in time to see a Shadow Ball make contact with my face, or it would have, had my dopple ganger not been in my place. Needless to say Destiny was quite surprised, he almost got hit with his own attack. Unfortunately he batted it away, which, of course, I was already taking a different course of action.

Running as quickly as I could, I leapt onto the wall and right at Destiny from behind, releaskig my volley of Swift. He caught me out of the corner of his eye, unfortunately, barely saving himself in time as his eyes glowed blue once again, my stars turning the same color as well as they circled around him. "What the-!" I said in surprise.

"You underestimate how great my powers are, quadruped," Destiny said. "If I were to unleash the full extent of my power here, there'd be nothing left of anyone in this section of the cave. Even the moonstone I had come to collect would be no more. Lucky for you, however, I'm only using a hare fraction of my power so as to not allow that to happen." The Swift stars, meanwhile, continued to circle around Destiny while he talked. Once he ceased talking, however, the stars all shot out toward me in a single line. I barely had time to register what was going on being that I was shaken by the fact that he might be a lot more powerful than I had taken him for, but I reacted quickly by countering with a Psy Beam, destroying the stars just before they could reach me.

"And you underestimate my strength and power," I said upon landing. "Even if I'm not as powerful as you, you're one biggest mistake would be allowing me to live and get stronger."

"Don't be foolish, quadruped," Destiny said. "No amount of training you do will ever make you my equal. I far surpass you in everything. You have no idea who I am."

"I don't care who you are!" I yelled. "I don't care how powerful you are. So what if you have the power to kill me? If that's what it means to protect this moon space stone thing, then I hope to take you down with me."

Destiny only laughed this time. "You amuse me, quadruped," he said. "You actually think you can take me down? Why do you protect something that's not even worth protecting?"

"For the sake of others," I answered him. "I protect things of other's because, to them, it's everything to them, the only thing they care about in the world, more than anything else." Destiny remained silent, his eyes bearing into mine, like he was looking for a more explainable reason behind my motives.

"And what about you?" he asked silently. "What do you care about more than anything in this world?" My eyes were diverted as I thought about what it was in my life that I cared for, only to realize that that was something Destiny had probably expected. Snapping my attention back to him, all I could do was watch as a very dark energy beam was shot right at me. I could only stand there as the attack made direct contact with me, or it would have if a strange yellow wall took the attack instead. Wait. Where did that yellow wall come from and how did it cancel out the dark enegy beam? My questions were soon answered as Cleft jumped right in between Destiny and I, the yellow wall fading.

"Cleft?" I said surprised. "What are you doing? Get out of here! This isn't your fight."

"You have it wrong, Zack," Cleft said. "It is too my fight. We should be the ones defending our home, not you. Yet you fight for something that's not even yours, putting your own life on the line until the end. Consider this my way of apologizing for having my suspcions upon you and your friends." Something seemed to keep catching in my head the whole time he said all this.

"What do you mean we?" I asked, instantly finding out that other Clefairys were popping out from nowhere, all forming in front of me and facing Destiny. Just how many others like Cleft were there? And were most of them male? "Cleft, I appreciate you trying to make things right for the way you've acted, but I don't think you can take on Destiny. If what he says is true, then all of you would have died for nothing."

"Don't bother trying to stop us Zack," Cleft said. "On behalf of all the pokemon who call this place home, we will do what we have to to thwart Destiny's plan, even if it means sacrificing what we treasure dearly." With that, all the Clefairy stuck up their paws, all pointing a single finger in the air before swinging their arms back and forth, side to side. My eyes began following the pattern, entranced by whatever it was they were doing. Perhaps it was some sort of dance. But what kind of dance would help out in this kind of mess? Then again, they could have had some super big attack they were going to use. Ooh! Maybe it was some sort of beam attack or maybe even a laser! Why a laser I'll never know.

Tearing my gaze away, I took notice that there were other Clefairy blocking Destiny away from the giant moonstone, even though he just stood there probably wondering what they were doing too. "Metronome?" he said. "You're using that attack on me? An attack that, based on luck, may or may not do anything to stop me?"

"That's right," Cleft said with a nod of his head. "Metronome always calls forth any attack. We never know what attack we'll use. However, more times often than not, there's always one attack that seems to come into effect every time."

"And what attack would that be?" Destiny asked as the Claefairys began slowing their swinging paws.

"I think it's something you're not going to be able to stop!" Cleft said. "In fact, if I were you, I'd be ducking for cover." I saw Destiny's eyes widen as his attention snapped straight to the moonstone.

"No!" he yelled as he began moving straight for it, just as the Clefairy slowly brought their paws straight up, snapping them up with their fingers pointing up at the ceiling, finishing their attack, whatever it was. The next thing I knew, everything went white and a loud eruption blew through my ears, feet leaving the ground before everything went black.


	26. Leaving the Caves

**Took me a little longer than I had planned it to be, but I finally have this chapter up! Please R&R!**

Chapter 26: Leaving the Caves

Nothing. That's all there seemed to be at first. It felt like a place where nothing existed, nothing to keep myself on the ground. It almost felt like I was floating in mid-air, yet it appeared that I was not going anywhere. My thoughts seemed to have scattered about, asking so many questions at once. Where was I? Why was I floating? Was I dead? Was I back in my pokeball? Was I really albino to begin with or was everything a lie? Why was I asking myself these pointless questions? Was I in an alternate world? How old was I? Why was everything hurting so badly? What just happened? Why are my eyes closed? Why can't I seem to open them? Oh! I guess maybe I was conscious after all, just a little winded after whatever just happened. What did just happen? Aargh! Stop these crazy questions!

Coming to, I slowly blinked open my eyes, everything seeming quite blurry. as an added plus, my ears seemed to be ringing. I couldn't hear anything going on, not that there was much to hear. Blinking a few times, I turned my head, only to feel the muscles in them aching with pain as I did. My thoughts seemed to wander as I tried recollecting unknown events that recently took place. Bit by bit I recalled being in a cave, pink Clefairy everywhere. It was kind of like a nightmare for guys. I remembered them doing something with their paws before waking up like this, I think. I coughed as I inhaled some dust floating around, hearing my own voice muffled as I did.

"Hello?" I called out, the ringing in my ears muffling my voice as I struggled to get up. My legs buckled a little, my paws stepping on some loose rocks lying about as I coughed again, my vision clearing. "Ted? Where are you?" I continued to cough as more dust filled my lungs. With my vision clearing and my mind remembering what happened, I took a look around the area, noticing quite a number of large rocks scattered about. They must have fallen from the ceiling when the explosion partook. The explosion! That must have been the attack the Clefairy used, but for what purpose I wasn't sure. "Ted?'' I yelled out again, my ears still muffling my voice. "Ted?" I staggered about now, trying to make my way across the cave, stopping suddenly as I noticed something out of place, something that used to be therem but not anymore.

"Where's the moonstone?" I thought to myself in question. Did the Clefairy blow it up? Was that their main goal in order to stop Destiny? Just where was he? Nevermind him. I had to find Ted. Everything else could come later. I now hobbled across the cave, looking all about for any signs of Ted. Poor guy, um, mon. He was probably crushed underneath a rock somewhere, not able to breathe as his dying breath called out my name. And I couldn't even hear well. Just thinking about that made me frantic as I hurried my hobbling, calling out Ted's name as I stopped and looked under every rock I passed. The longer it took for me to find him, the more worried I became. What if I was too late? What if he had already gone and I was looking in the wrong place? What if- I stopped suddenly, slowly turning my head to the left. Sure enough, there was Ted, standing there looking at me with some odd emotion on his face, sort of like wondering what the heck I was looking for or something.

I felt relieved knowing that he was all right. I started to walk over to him, but Ted turned his attention back to the cave wall, staring at a downward angle. What was so fascinating about a cave wall? Shouldn't he have been happy that he was still alive? However, as I came up next to him, I saw just what it was he was looking at, or rather, in this case, whom. Lying sitting up against the cave wall was the pokemon Ted was fighting earlier, his eyes open, but empty. Looking up right above his eyes I could see a piece of rock sticking out, embedded in his head. Must have been from the explosion. I wanted to say something as I stared at the now deceased pokemon. Yet another one fell prey to death, all for the sake of a future that an insane pokemon sought.

I watched Ted as he walked up close to the pokemon, kneeling down and keeping himself balanced with one hand while the other was placed over the pokemon's eyes, closing them so that no one would have to see the emptiness in his eyes. As Ted began getting up, I tried to muster out some words. "Ted, I-"

"Don't worry about me, Zack," Ted said, keeping his gaze lingering upon the pokemon. "This is my burden to bear, just like how that Sneasel is your burden to bear." I didn't know what else I could say after that. All I felt for the moment was pity for this pokemon, pity that he had to wind up on the wrong team and die for it. "A shame I couldn't help him though," Ted continued. "Poor guy was confused with what he was doing." That was something that caught my attention. Unfortunately, as I went to ask him about it, my ears picked up a noise, causing both Ted and I to whip our heads around to see Destiny at the other end of cave heading toward the exit.

"Destiny!" I yelled out, my yelling causing him to turn to look at me.

He ws silent as the both of us stared at one another for a few good minutes. "Curse you, quadruped!" he finally said. "Curse you and all the Clefairy! You may have foiled my plans this time around, but rest assured that the next time we meet, you'll experience my full power and you and your friends will die." I remained silent as he spoke, anger flaring up inside me. "You only delay the inevatible. This is only a temporary set back for me, however. I will succeed in my plans for world domination and when I do, you'll be the first I'll come after."

"You can try," was all I said, receiving a very rather nasty glare from him.

"We shall see, Zack," was all he said, staring at me for another few seconds before looking down, his eyes glowing blue as a piece of the moonstone levitated into the air and flew right into his hand. With that, he turned and walked off into the cave again, causing me to start after him. I barely got in a step when Ted spoke up.

"Let him go, Zack," he said. "There's not much he can do with just a piece of the moonstone. All it really is good for now is to evolve a pokemon who needs a moonstone to evolve." I continued staring in the direction Destiny had disappeared for at least several more seconds before turning away.

"Are you sure?" I asked, not completely convinced.

"It'll take him the rest of his life searching for stones that small," Ted replied. "And besides, there's no possible way they would be able to hold to form a spaceship big enough, let alone finding enough moonstones to build at least half the ship." I still wasn't entirely convinced with what he said was true, but I had to trust Ted's word on it.

"All right," I said as I turned to him.

"So Zack bro. What was up with that huge explosion?" Explosion? Oh, right.

"Oh that was just Cleft and his Clefairy friends doing some weird attack and blowing u- oh man! Cleft! The Clefairy! We need to see if they're all all right!" Realizing that blowing themselves up may have done some major damage to them, Ted and I ran to the middle of the cave, moving and breaking rocks to make sure the Clefairy weren't hurt too badly. After about making sure five Clefairy were okay, I managed to spot Cleft lying up against the wall face down. "Cleft!" I yelled out, running over to him and flipping him onto his back. "Cleft! Say something! Please be okay!" Surely enough, Cleft came to, coughing and trying to breathe in some air. "Take it easy. This place is a little musty with the debris floating around."

"I'll be all right," Cleft croaked, his voice cracked. He tried clearing it with another cough. "What happened?"

"You blew up along with the moonstone," I replied.

"What about the pokemon who-" he began, sounding a little better, but was cut short as I replied with a "Don't worry. He's gone." "Thank goodness," Cleft said, sighing with relief as I heard a familiar voice calling out my name.

"We're in here!" I yelled out, the tip end of Charcoal's fire tail running in through the same entrance Destiny had left through a second later with both Laura and my trainer right behind him.

"Ted!" Laura yelled as she ran off to find him. Charcaol and my trainer both came running towards me, the latter kneeling down and placing his hand on the side of my head possibly. Or rather my face. I really couldn't tell. But it did feel reassuring to have him here.

"Thank goodness you two are all right," he said, relief in his voice. "Is Ted okay, Laura?" he yelled over to her.

"A few scrapes and bruises," she replied back. "And parts of his fur are singed like he took a Flamethrower or Thunder Shock attack head on. Otherwise, he's doing fine."

"Are you all right?" I heard Charcoal say behind me, helping Cleft up.

"A little woozy from blowing up, but yeah, I'm fine," was Cleft's answer.

"Blowing up?" Charcoal asked.

"Me and the rest of the Clefairy here all used Metronome and managed to use Explosion," Cleft explained.

"Ah!" Charcoal said. "So that's what caused the cave to shake like that."

"Hey what are we going to do about all the Clefairy lying about?" I heard Laura ask. "I hope they're all right. And where did the giant moonstone go?"

"I'm not entirely sure," my trainer said as he got up. "But I think the Clefairy had to do something with it. Right Zack?"

I smiled and replied with a "You better believe it!"

"So then that rumble that occurred, that was them blowing up their own moonstone?" Laura asked.

"I guess so," my trainer said, looking around. "Looks like that explosion also sent that group of pokemon packing too."

"Who were they anyway?" Laura asked.

"I don't know," my trainer said. "But I have a feeling that that may not have been the last we've seen of them."

"Great!" Laura said, sarcasm in her voice. "So now we're fighting an unknown gang of pokemon whom we have no idea what their goals are, aside from the pokemon."

"I wouldn't worry about it much for now," my trainer said as some of the other Clefairy began coming to.

"I guess you're right," Laura said with a frown before turning it right side up and squeezing Ted. "But at least we get to go to Cerulean City now that that is all over."

"Cerulean City?" Cleft questioned. "Is that where you're all heading?"

"Before we got sidetracked, yes," was Charcoal's answer.

"Well allow me to guide you to the exit then," Cleft said. "That should at least make up for attacking you from earlier.

"Hey thanks!" I said happily, walking over to him. "Lead the way!"

* * *

After getting our human trainers to follwo and making sure the Clefairy were completely okay, Cleft led the lot of us through the caves and out to our exit. "This is it," Cleft said as we walked out into the light, being blinded for a moment. Yeesh! The darkness really messes with the eyes for the light.

"So this will take us to Cerulean City," Ted stated.

"Just so long as you follow the path," Cleft said. "I think it's about a day and a half to get there from here."

"All right!" Laura yelled happily. "We're finally out of this cave and going to Cerulean!"

"And I can finally earn my second gym badge," my trainer said, pumped up with excitement. I was just as eager and couldn't wait to fight whatever awaited us at the next gym.

"Hey Cleft," I said, turning to him. "I'm really sorry about your moonstone."

"Zack," Cleft said. "You and your friends fought for something that wasn't even yours. We are ever indebted to you all and are welcome back at anytime."

"Thanks!" I said grinning. "But what will you do now that your space rock got destroyed?"

"Oh don't worry about it," Cleft said before darkening his voice. "We Clefairy will rebuild and colonize an army on a nearby planet for our return to dominate the world!" The three of us, excluding the humans, all remained silent, though the humans really had no idea what Cleft said. Cleft quickly lightened his mood, however, laughing, the three of us laughing unsure chuckles in along with him. "Nah! I'm just joking you guys." He wiped a tear from his eye. "But no, seriously. I was being serious." And there was that dark hint in his voice again along with the evil looking glare he was giving us. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this Clefairy at that point, at least right up until he started laughing again. "Man you guys are easy!" he chuckled. "You should have seen the look on your faces!" Again that unsure, awkward silence fell among Charcoal, Ted, and I, yet was shrugged off as we joined in with yet another unsure laugh.

"Well, Cleft bro," Ted said as the laughter simmered down. "We sure do appreciate you guiding us out."

"It was no problem," Cleft said. "Just a little make up for whay I've done."

"Well, we'll be seeing you," I said as we all turned and began our journey for the city. Once we were far out of earshot, I spoke up again. "Man that was one heck of a battle."

"I'll say," Ted said. "At least you weren't fighting a ghost type."

"I for one am glad to be leaving," Charcoal said. "If you ask me, those Clefairy seem a little creepy." I had to agree with him on that. Not that the Clefairy were all that bad, just a little on the creepy side. I don't know why, but I looked back to see Cleft's pink body standing before the cave entrance/exit, even from this distance. I turned away briefly, partly because my neck was getting stiff and partly because I had to shake my head and blink a few times, not sure if I was seeing things quite right. I turned my head and looked back, only this time, where I saw Cleft standing a second ago, he was gone, almost like he wasn't even there to begin with. I turned my head straight back onto the path before me, unsure that what I did see was just an illusion my eyes were playing. Even though we were pretty far from where he stood to where he couldn't hear, I could have sworn I saw him smirking quite evilly.

But I suppose that was only my imagination.


	27. Catching Up

Chapter 27: Catching Up

"Zack!" I heard Charcoal call out my name, forcing me to open up my eyes tiredly. Sure enough, both him and Ted were walking straight over towards me. "It's time that we had a talk." I sighed, not really in the mood for talking. Unfortunately, sleep would have to wait, setting aside what I had planned to do tonight. But I think that I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Let me backtrack a bit to explain what exactly is going on.

You see, it's been about a day since we left the caves behind, and Cleft. We were all heading to the next city to battle against the next gym and were still some ways away from it, so sidetracking off the path a little, Laura and my trainer set up camp about the time the sun began sinking. It felt good to rest up after our recent battle against Destiny. I did have quite a lot of questions concerning him, but I decided not to worry about it for once. So while our trainers were busy setting up that tent of theirs, I decided to take the opportunity to get some shut eye so that I could do some night hunting. The area we were in was a luscious green field with trees in the distant background. It felt good to have the gentle breeze blowing all around, which made me wonder what season we were in. Why don't I ever keep track of such things? I took a quick look around to see what everybody else was doing before settling down, feeling soft, cool grass tickling my underside a bit, causing me to grin some. Aside from the humans setting up camp, Charcoal stood several feet away, gazing off in the distance while his flame tail danced in the breeze. Ted was opposite from where Charcoal stood, lying on his back while gazing up into the sky. As for Skitty, she was out of her ball and squirming all about upon her back. Weird. But I didn't really have any other concerns as I let out a contented sigh as I shut my eyes to sleep, which, about some minutes later, was when Ted and Charcoal came walking over to me wanting to talk.

"Do you guys think it can wait?" I asked. "I haven't gotten much sleep lately and besides, I want to go night hunting tonight."

"Sorry, Zack," Ted said. "Your night hunting is going to have to wait. This can't." Did my ears hear right? Did Ted just call me by my name without using the word bro? I guess that when he doesn't use the word, it means that he's serious about things like this. It was enough to get me intrigued as I sat up.

"O.K.," I said. "You now have my attention. So what do you guys want to talk about?"

"It's time that you told us about what that was all about back there in the cave," Charcoal answered. "About who that pokemon was, or rather, is, and what their mumbo jumbo was all about with spaceships and taking over the world and stuff."

"Yes," Ted said. "I do recall that pokemon mentioning something like that. You mentioned that you met him before in Viridian Forest. So who is he?"

"Well," I began. "I don't know much about the guy. I know his name is Destiny and he's out to take over the world, such as he said."

"Destiny?" Charcoal asked, an eye scale raised. "Quite an odd name for a pokemon like him."

"But not normally uncommon, perhaps?" Ted questioned, receiving a shrug of the shoulders from Charcoal.

"The last time I ran into Destiny, he mentioned something about absorbing the powers of legendary pokemon to overthrow the humans and rule among them."

"What!" Charcoal questioned. "Absorb a legendary's power? That's absurd. How can a pokemon absorb the powers of a legendary? Why would he want to?"

"Like I said," I said. "I don't know much about what's going on. Destiny had only formed that group when I first ran into him back in the forest. Running into him back in the caves means he's going through with what he said."

"And like I said, absorbing a legendary's power can't be done," Charcoal said.

"I wouldn't say that for positive, Charc. bro," Ted said, back to adding his "bro" at the end after saying one's name. "Always believe in possibilities. There could be ways to do such a thing."

"Even if there were, one would have to have some sort of special item that could zap those powers," Charcoal said. "That or Destiny would have to have a tremendous amount of high powers beyond those who can only raise their power up to a certain limit. By the way, what kind of pokemon is Destiny anyway?"

That questioned stumped me, for I had no known idea what Destiny was. Thankfully Ted managed to answer that question. "I suppose an Alakazam would have such power as you just described, wouldn't it?"

"An Alakazam!" Charcoal asked in surprise. "Are you sure it wasn't any other pokemon?"

"Why would I have reason to lie?" Ted asked. "You can ask Zack yourself if you don't believe me." Charcoal turned to me, awaiting whether or not Ted's confirmations were true. Of course, I had to go and ask the most obvious question I had to ask.

"What's an Alakazam?"

I watched as Charcoal stopped breathing and Ted's eyes widened in surprise. Obviously I went and had to ask a stupid question. The three of us remained silent, not saying a word. I could see Charcoal's face starting to turn blue due to him not breathing. "Uh, Charcoal," I said. "You may want to breathe."

He took a deep breath, the color returning to his face. As he exhaled, he said quite softly, "Please tell me you're joking." I remained silent, not sure how to answer that question. "Oh dear Mew he's not!" Charcoal pinched the area between his eyes as Ted recovered from his momentary shock.

"Should have known," he mumbled under his breath with a small smile.

"Excuse me a moment," Charcoal said, turning about and walking right on over to our trainer, catching his attention by poking him in the leg.

"Hmm?" he said, looking down. "What's up, Charcoal?" Charcoal made a hand/paw motion for him to lower, our trainer doing so. Next thing I knew, Charcoal reached inside our trainer's jacket

and took out the handheld device our trainer carried, walking back over to us with it. "Did Charcoal just take my Pokedex from me and walk off?" I heard our trainer ask in disbelief.

"Don't look at me," Laura said. "You're the one with the abnormal pokemon." Ted stifled a laugh as Charcoal opened up the Pokedex thing and apparently was looking for something inside it, coming to a stop and flipping it around so that I could see what it was he was looking for. Sure enough, on screen was Destiny the way I remembered seeing him. That long facial hair coming down from his nose and curving slightly upward along with the objects he held in his hands.

"That's Destiny," I stated as Charcoal hit a button opposite the picture.

"Alakazam, the Psychic type pokemon,"

a computerized voice spoke out from it. _"Alakazam is the final evolved form of Abra and are revered to be the highest ranking of psychic pokemon. In its hands it holds spoons to help it concentrate its psychic abilities."_

"Huh," I said once the Pokedex was finished. "What's a Psychic type?" Again with the stupid questions as Charcoal lowered the Pokedex object and stared at me in disbelief.

"Basically Psychic types are pokemon who focus their minds on supernatural forces not of this world," Ted explained to me. "Or so I'm told."

I think what Ted's saying is that a Psychic type's brain is at a higher level than all other pokemon, granting them access to powers no other elemental pokemon can have," Charcoal summoned it up.

"So what can a Psychic pokemon do for instance?" I asked.

"Just about anything they want to," Ted answered. "Though it really depends on the type of pokemon they want to be. Psychic types can move objects and stay hidden in the shadows, making it seem like ghosts are the cause behind it and make everyone believe it so."

"So Psychic is also an attack?" I asked on.

"Like your trainer commanded when you and I battled, bro," Ted said, refreshing my memory to that day.

"Oh yeah!" I said. "I remember him commanding me to use that or something. Just out of curiosity, when a pokemon uses Psychic, does their eyes turn a bluish color?"

"I do believe so," Ted said thoughtfully. "I take it that Destiny tried using that attack upon you?"

"Yeah," I replied. "Though nothing seemed to happen."

"Well I don't see why anything should have," Charcoal said. "After all, Dark types such as yourself aren't affected by Psychic."

"I'm not?" I questioned, surprised by this fact. "I'm a Dark type?"

"What type did you think you were?" Charcoal asked, which got me to thinking for a bit.

"You know, I'm not really sure!" I said sheepishly, receiving an annoyed sigh from Charcoal. "I never really stopped to think about what type of element I was. But I am curious to know why Psychic can't hurt Dark types."

"It's kind of a yin-yang thing," Charcoal explained. "You see, the world is always going to need balance. Good versus evil kind of thing. If one thing is to simply bloop out of existence, the whole Earth becomes unbalanced due to the one existing side taking over in their own beliefs of righteousness. You and Destiny are polar opposites, day and night, right and wrong. If one of you were to be killed, well, it's kind of a complicated mess after that. Trust me. There are some things you don't want to know about."

My head was in a whirl at this point, lost by Charcoal's all knowing brain. Was he sure he wasn't a Psychic type himself? "Don't worry about it," I said. "My brain's kind of hurting gathering in all this information."

"Indeed," Charcoal said. "Knowing too much information can cause the brain to overload and crash. A terrible way to meet an end."

"I agree with the scaly lizard!" Skitty suddenly blurted in. Where did she come from? And when did she join in on the conversation? I must have really been engrossed talking with Ted and Charcoal that I didn't notice her walk over. Her sudden out spoke startled me, I leapt about three feet off the ground. Ted and Charcoal must not have known she was there, for they were just as surprised to see her there as I was.

Silence occurred for at least a second before Charcoal asked, "Do you have any idea what we're talking about?"

Skitty remained silent, staring directly at Charcoal before looking at the ground, giving it some thought apparently. She looked up after about a few minutes, tilting her head to the side before coming up with her answer. "Fish sticks!

Charcoal stood there, giving Skitty the blankest look I have ever seen anyone. After him standing there for what felt like a lifetime, Charcoal slowly turned to Ted with a questionable look maybe? Or maybe a look that looked like he gave up and needed an answer. "They're her favorite treat," Ted explained to him. "Laura tends to feed her some every now and then. And you know how cats attract to fish."

Charcoal remained looking the way he did as he eventually turned his attention back to Skitty. "How do fish sticks even relate to what we're talking about?" he asked.

"I don't know," Skitty replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "Isn't that what we're talking about?"

"Not entirely," Ted said to her. "But don't worry about it. It's just guy stuff."

"Oh. O.K.!" she said before trotting off and pouncing all over the place.

"Oh yeah!" I said suddenly. "I just remembered. When Destiny tried using Psychic on me, he said something about me being immune to his Psychic. Does that mean anything to you guys?"

"Interesting topic you brought up there, Zack bro," Ted said. "Very interesting indeed."

"How so?" I asked.

"Well, you just mentioned that Destiny used Psychic on you, yet you claimed that nothing happened, seeing as how you've never met a Psychic type pokemon and don't know its strengths and weaknesses. And if Destiny had tried using his Psychic on you, it can only rule out the fact that he doesn't know that Psychic can't harm you, meaning that he's using his high ranking powers to frighten all other pokemon without having to use Psychic on them."

"I see where you're going with this," Charcoal said. "We have an advantage over Destiny. As long as he thinks Psychic will affect you, Zack, we'll always have the upper hand against him. Of course, on the down side, if he trains to better his Psychic to use against you, a lot of innocent lives will be in danger, not to mention lost."

"We can't have it both ways, Charc. Bro," Ted stated.

"True," Charcoal said, looking defeated. "I just hate the fact that he's using other pokemon out there as target practice for his powers. It's sickening to even think about it."

"Well let's not worry about it right now," I said. "After all, we did manage to win a battle in those caves. I'm certain it will be some time before he makes another move for world domination."

"And you know this how?" Charcoal asked, arms crossed.

"Don't all evil people and pokemon need to take breaks in between taking over the world?" I questioned.

"Taking breaks, definitely no," Ted said. "It's more like going straight back to the drawing board to calculate a new move. We'll need to figure out our next move against them as well if we want to keep him from absorbing any legendary's powers. But in the meantime, we did win a victory against him. I'd say that deserves us a break. We'll worry more about Destiny next time we come across him."

"You guys go ahead and take your breaks," Charcoal said. "I'll be off busy strategizing how to defeat this powerful Psychic type."

"Good luck with that," Ted said as Charcoal got up and walked off towards the humans. "Sorry for ruining your night, bro."

"It's all right," I said with a yawn. "I need to catch up on some sleep anyway."

"Sleep well, Zack bro," Ted said as I shut my eyes. Moments later, all senses shut down as sleep quickly came.


	28. Breakfast and Visions

Chapter 28: Breakfast and Visions

"Rawr!" was the first thing my ears picked up upon waking up, and my eyes weren't even open yet, not that I needed to open them to know who it was.

"Morning, Skitty," I said with a yawn.

"Good morning!" she said back. "How are you?"

"Feeling loads better now that I got some sleep," I replied happily. "How are you?"

"I'm as perky as evah!" was her reply. "Say, why are your eyes closed? Can you see better when they're shut?" Why were my eyes still shut? I had no intention of going back to sleep. Some times I just don't understand myself. Opening my eyes and shutting them due to the sun being in my eyes and having to blink a couple times until my eyes adjusted, there stood Skitty, the sun beaming down upon her, radiating something off of her I couldn't quite describe. I watched as she tilted her head to one side and looked at me like I was her morning breakfast.

"Um, is something wrong?" I asked. "Do I have something on my face?"

"Hmm?" Skitty like she was lost in thought. "Oh. Nothing. It's nothing. Just, um…" she trailed off, looking around until she spotted Ted nearby eating breakfast. "Ooh! Breakfast! BACON!" Skitty zipped off before I could blink and was over with the others when I did. The rumbling of my stomach made me realize also just how hungry I was. Getting up and stretching out my muscles, I walked over to the rest of the group, being greeted by Ted.

"Morning, Zack bro," he said, sitting in an odd position. "Your food's over there if you're hungry. Laura did the honors of placing crumbled bacon in it to add flavor." What was this bacon being mentioned? Must have been a human food, which, oddly enough, I never really stopped to try any human foods during my travels. I mostly ate berries more often than not, along with whatever I found edible lying around on the ground. Then there was that green slimy stuff that floated around in lakes, but that's a whole different story. So all in all, I wondered how tasty this bacon stuff would be.

Walking over to what appeared to be a round, circular object, I looked down in it to see some mushy, gooey stuff sitting in it, along with bits of crumbled up stuff I assume was the bacon. I lowered my head and took a great whiff to get in the smell. I wasn't exactly sure what I was smelling, nor did I care, yet I could smell something… crispy lingering in the air. Was that meat? Without a second's hesitation, I gulped up everything into my mouth in one go and chewed, trying to feel the flavor. Honestly, I didn't even know what I was chewing. It could have been poisoned for all I knew. Oh well. At least I'd die with a full stomach!

"I knew he'd like it," I heard Laura say. "Guess the bacon was a big hit after all."

"Provided he even tasted anything at all," I heard Charcoal say, causing me to whip my head around and stare right at him, my mouth full of food. Charcoal just blankly stared at me as I swallowed everything in one go before smiling. "Now that's just creepy." Ted laughed as Skitty started smacking her bowl thing around and even picking it up.

"I know you has more treats in there!" she said, smashing the thing upon the ground. "Open I say!"

"That was good," I said, licking around for any crumbs. "What was that stuff anyway?"

"Chicken with crumbled up bacon, bro," Ted answered me.

"Hmm," I said, trying to think up of how well it tasted and how I wanted to word it. "Well, it did taste a little on the funny side, rather bland, but I suppose it was all right."

"Yet you ate the entire thing in one go," Charcoal said.

"I was hungry," I said.

"At least he actually tried feeling the taste," Ted said. "Did you at least taste the bacon?"

"I'm not sure exactly," I replied. "Unless it was that crunchy crumbled up stuff you mentioned. I didn't really taste much of that."

"Not bad for your first try though, right?" Ted asked.

"I'll have some more if-" I was suddenly interrupted as something smacked right into my face and stuck there. All I could see was the bottom of one of these round food dishes heard Skitty scream something.

"Strike!"

* * *

So after breakfast was over and I had asked Charcoal about where humans got their food from, which he started explaining to me about a building full of food that could feed a single person an entire year or so… wait, where was I? Oh. Right. So after we had our breakfast and the humans packed everything of their stuff up, we all left the area we spent the night in and made way to the next city, which only took us up until my stomach began grumbling again. Wow! The day went by quicker than I thought. That or my stomach digests too quick. I must have been lost in my thoughts a lot longer than I had thought, or maybe it was shorter, I couldn't tell. All I knew was that when I was snapped out of said thoughts, we were all standing before the entrance to the city we were traveling to.

"We're here at last!" my trainer said, looking up at the sign. "Cerulean City!" I heard Charcoal sigh behind me, causing me to turn about and take notice that he wasn't looking too happy. Must have been that whole 'water having the better advantage over fire' thing.

"Cheer up, Charcoal," I said. "We'll win this."

"How can I?" he asked. "I'm going to be fighting a water type. My fire attacks won't do a single thing to it."

"But what about your Metal Claw?" I asked.

"I don't like close combat," he replied. "I have a better chance of protecting myself with the use of my fire."

"Save for water, rock, and other fire types," Ted stated as we all walked through the gate, overhearing my trainer mumbling about where to find the next gym.

"Am I any of those types?" Skitty asked.

"You're a normal type," Charcoal said to her. "You'd stand a little more of a chance than I would. Zack and Ted could definitely hold their own. Say-"

"Afraid not, bro," Ted said almost instantly, reading Charcoal's mind.

"Was worth a shot," Charcoal grumbled.

"So anyway Charcoal, did you ever figure out a possible weakness Destiny may have?" I asked.

"Unfortunately finding a weakness takes a lot longer than just overnight," Charcoal replied. "Let alone an entire day. For instance, I'd have to see him in action physically. Know just how powerful he is, study the way he moves, know all his tricks,-"

And there went my brain again. I didn't mind his talking, it's just that he could tone down the intellect and give me things without all the unnecessary details. It made my ears ring, which I was beginning to doubt that the ringing was all in my head to begin with. "Hold on there, Charc. bro," Ted said, cutting him off in mid-sentence while sticking a claw in his ear and twisting it back and forth. "My ears are starting to ring." Was his talking that contagious? Glad to know I wasn't the only one hearing that ring, I think.

"Hey, do you hear something ringing or is that just me?" I heard Laura suddenly say. Since when could she understand Charcoal? Either that or she just heard too many of his "Chars" to make her head spin and ears ring. Heh! That'd be so cool to see a person's head actually spin around like a Noctowl.

"I hear it too," my trainer said. "It sounds like it's coming from around the block. Come on!" We all gave chase, rounding a corner and drawing nearer to where the ringing was originating from. Good thing it wasn't me.

"What's that ringing sound?" asked Charcoal as we all slowed down to a stop.\, reaching wherever the ringing was coming from.

"What do you suppose is going on?" Laura asked, walking a few steps forward when my trainer stopped her by grabbing her shoulder.

"I don't think we want to stay and find out," he said, his voice hinting something not quite right going on. My fur began standing on end because of that and I could feel that Ted and Charcoal were tensed as well. As the humans were turning around to walk the opposite way we came, I got a good look of what stood in the middle of the road. Apparently there were four strange contraptions lined up, unsure of which way they were facing. They were all sitting on something big, round, and rubber like, two on each side. My curiosity was beginning to get the better of me, the desire to check out what these things were.

Suddenly, something quite strange happened. I wasn't quite sure what was happening, but the ringing suddenly stopped just as four humans came running right out of a building and aimed straight for the contraptions in the road. Apparently they were big enough for them to sit on, for each one went to one and swung a leg over the seat. I took that opportunity to study what they looked like. It was rather difficult to tell with their faces covered. And they were all wearing the exact same black clothes, including what covered their faces. I noticed that one of the humans was pointing a finger at us, his mouth moving, but no words coming out. My eyes darted to the human two contraptions down as he was pulling out something long and shiny, pointing it at us as well. I didn't like the way that thing looked, especially when it started shooting off flashes. That's when everything slowed down.

Staring at whatever the human was holding, I took notice of tiny sized metal things being blasted out. Even though I didn't know what they were, I could tell that they were extremely bad, especially if they were being blasted out of something, like when I fire off my Swift, only I could practically see the air rippling behind these metal objects, telling me that they were traveling at an approximately high speed. There seemed to be a million of these metal objects clustered together as they were all fired out from the long shiny object the human held. And unfortunately, they were all coming straight for me, my friends, and our human trainers with no possible opening of esca- Wait! I spoke too soon. I noticed a rather wide gap in among the metal objects, some of them straying off to the side. It may not have been big enough to make for it, if one was a human, that is. Luckily for me, with the right speed and momentum, I might just be able to leap through that gap, only I would be the only one safe while everyone else would take the hit.

I was about to turn and yell something out to Charcoal when suddenly, the metal objects went into reverse, each and every single one of them returning to the weapon the masked human held. Things got even weirder as the humans reversed everything they did, jumping off their strange seated contraptions and running backwards into the building in a straight line without falling over. I barely had time to register what happened as the ringing suddenly returned. What just happened? Did I just obtain a new power to see into the future? My question was instantly answered as the same four masked humans came running out from the building and onto their strange contraptions again. I knew what was about to happen, so acting fast I yelled out to Charcoal.

"Charcoal! No time to ask. Throw out a fireball barrier right now."

"What?" I heard him ask.

"Do it!" I yelled as I watched the same guy on the contraption nearest the building point at us.

"Kill them!" I heard him yell. I watched as the other guy pull out his weapon and pointed it right at us. I took that moment to run straight at them, aiming for the spot I saw the gap at just as I heard a loud rattling noise. I leapt just as he did that, feeling the speed of the metal objects whizzing past me as I flew through the gap. I looked back to see how the others were as I landed, seeing a fairly nice sized fireball being launched from Charcoal, protecting him and the others from the metal objects. I'd definitely be needing to explain myself later.

"What just happened?" I heard one of the humans say as I turned my attention back to them. "How'd that Umbreon do that?"

"Never mind him," the human at the end said as a loud roar emitted from the contraption he sat on. "Let's blow this scene before the cops arrive." Oh! Now I think I understood what was going on. Unfortunately, I didn't have any time to do anything else as the contraptions the humans were on suddenly shot forward, the first two bypassing me. I had to leap to the side as the third one swerved to hit me. Then the fourth one shot forward after the others, only as he passed by the group, it suddenly went crazy. The human tried steering his wheeled contraption to stay straight, only to have it flip over, the human jumping off as it did. That was awfully strange. Something told me that that wasn't what he meant to do.

"Of course," Charcoal said as I turned my attention to him, his Metal Claw activated. "That doesn't mean that my Metal Claw is completely useless."

"Good job, Charcoal!" I said with a nod.

"Later," he said. "Those other three are getting away."

"No worries, bro," Ted said as he crouched into that position of his when he was about to do his speed thing. "Zack, Skitty, and I will handle it. I trust you'll be able to take care of this one."

"No doubt," Charcoal said as the human was getting up. "Get going!"

"Skitty," Ted said. "Chase." Skitty zipped off after the other three wheeled contraptions as Ted shot off in pursuit. I followed after, activating my Quick Attack and bowling the human over just as he got up.

"He's all yours now!" I yelled back at Charcoal as I laughed. "Enjoy!"


	29. Cerulean Speed Chase I

Chapter 29: Cerulean Speed Chase I

**You know how they say that there's no place like home for the holidays. For Zack, he's thinking of home, yet it's far from the holidays. But as for a special holiday update, we have our favorite Triforce of Friends back in yet another Zack flashback. So read up and please review. Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!**

* * *

Sprinting straight into a Quick Attack, I gave chase after Ted who was giving chase after Skitty who was giving chase to the three robbers on their wheeled contraptions as they fled the area we were in. I had managed to successfully bowl over the fourth robber that Charcoal had managed to subdue as I gave chase, laughing in victory as I did so. "He's all yours!" I yelled back at him. "Enjoy!" I then turned my concentration upon the three who were fleeing in time to see two of them split off in different directions while the lead guy continued on straight with Skitty right behind him.

"Zack!" Ted yelled back at me. "I'm going left. You get the right."

"Right," I said as Ted suddenly skidded, a claw on the ground to slow his speed before shooting off around the corner. I made my way to the intersection afterwards, skidding to a slow while turning my body right. And by that I mean the opposite from left. After making my full forty-five angle turn, I shot forward once again with Quick Attack, continuing my chase, the robber having a head start on me. But I managed to catch up in no time flat thanks to doubling my speed up a little. Just as I neared the wheeled contraption the robber was on, everything was speeding up like before, only, my speed was slowing down while his was speeding up. I watched as the robber took a quick look back at me before pulling out his weapon again and firing more of those whizzing, metal objects, which all slowed down for me to see the direction they were heading.

Luckily for me this time, the objects were scattered, making dodging them easier. Of course, I did see at least one gap I would have to take in order to avoid some damage. The robber himself, I noticed, kept looking back at me and then looking forward to steer his wheeled contraption, right before everything went in reverse again and I found myself right where I was when everything sped up. Taking the exact opportunity, I slowed my speed down just a bit and shifted over to where I saw the gap just as the robber pulled out his weapon and fired. Must have been hard trying to hit an opponent while trying to maintain sight ahead of one. Sure enough, none of the whizzing objects came close to even remotely hitting me. I was beginning to charge up a Psybeam at this point when, once again, everything sped up once more. Only this time, I slowed down greatly while I watched the robber's contraption speed up and turn a corner. By this time, I had slowed down completely, almost like I was frozen. And for some unexplained reason, I had decided to turn my head in the direction the robber turned.

To my right was one of those alleyways that separated most buildings instead of those side by side. And this alleyway appeared to be very long. Something else I couldn't explain was why I was counting the seconds off in my head, reaching ten when everything stopped suddenly. Still looking down the alleyway, even from this distance, I could see something there, not moving. Narrowing my vision to get a better look, I instantly recognized the robber by the wheel contraption I was chasing. There he was, stopped, not doing anything until he suddenly began moving backwards out of sight, the seconds in my head counting down. By the time it had reached zero, the robber came out from around the corner, quickly backing up to me as I began running backwards myself, my speed quickly returning to me.

By the time the wheeled contraption backed up right in front of my face, time resumed back to normal as the noise the thing made returned and I was back chasing it, readying up a Psybeam. I slacked up my speed however, allowing the robber to get ahead of me just as I reached the spot where I saw the alleyway. Halting abruptly, I watched as the robber turn in the same direction he did in my future vision. The moment he disappeared around the corner, I shot off into the alleyway, counting the seconds off in my head while preparing a Shadow Ball instead. The darkness of the alley boosted up my speed immensely, well more than a Quick Attack would have done. That kind of reminded me… no. I had to stay focused. I only had one shot at this and I could not fail.

Quickly speeding through the alleyway thanks to the darkness increasing my speed, I made it to the other side of the alleyway just as I counted to nine. At the same time, I shot out my Shadow Ball, keeping it aimed straight and true. I could hear the roar from the wheeled contraption nearing fast and by the time I had counted to ten, the robber came zooming by, my Shadow Ball making contact with the front wheel, causing it to blow. Doing so sent the robber flying off his machine as it spun out of control, flipping end over end before smashing against a building and coming to a dead stop. You know, seeing that all happened kind of reminded me of the first time I learned Shadow Ball in a different way no one else would have.

_(Flashback begins)_

_"Ooh!" I moaned waking up, placing a paw upon my head. Despite the fur that covered my body, I could feel how warm my head was. That would probably explain why the den was spinning, even as I struggled to get to my feet. I could feel my body trying to lean one way and then the other as I tried righting myself. To top it all off, I could hardly breathe with my nose feeling like it was closed up. Why was I feeling like this this morning? What had I done to make myself feel this way? I didn't recall doing anything out of the ordinary yesterday as I tried to think of it. It did make my head hurt all the more as I did, so I just quit thinking altogether._

_Taking a quick look around the den, I noticed that it seemed empty. Parents were probably out for a stroll this morning or something. That or they were collecting food. Probably doing their daily thing and all, which reminded me. I needed to go meet up with Pooch and Lizzie. We made everyday our day to play and doing so was always an adventure! Breathing was rather difficult though, even as I staggered out toward the opening of my den. It was amazing how I knew such big words at this age. They just came to me like this unknown feeling I was feeling. I seemed to have been really out of it, for the next time I was aware of anything, I was out in the middle of the forest somewhere. It would have been really easy to tell where I was if it weren't for the fact that everything kept spinning._

_I looked back to see if I could see the den. Maybe leaving it wasn't such a good idea, but I couldn't just leave Pooch and Lizzie waiting all day and then never show up and make them wonder where I am. Of course, looking back made everything spin out of control, forcing me to look back forward and slump against the nearest tree. I placed a paw up to my head again, trying to keep everything from spinning when I heard someone yell out, "Zack!" Bringing down my paw, I looked around and soon spotted Pooch running toward me, though he kept running from side to side. Curse you spinning world!_

_"Booch!" I said happily, trying my best to smile. Wait. Did I just call him Booch? Must have been a slip of the tongue. Propelling myself off the tree, I tried making my way over to greet him, trying the key word, yet failing horribly as my spinning world made me go one way and then another._

_"Zack?" I heard Pooch say, a hint of concern in his voice. "Are you all right?"_

_"Neber better," I said, focusing my attention on him, only to slump forward onto my face. You know this really wasn't helping me any. I did note that when I spoke, my voice sounded kind of funny. Today just wasn't going all that great. "I meant do do dat."_

_"Um, okay," Pooch said uncertain as he helped me up, only for him to have my entire weight leaned upon him. "Whoa Zack. What's gotten into you?"_

_"What are you dalking about?" I asked. "I dold you I'm hine."_

_With a grunt, Pooch managed to shift my weight over back onto the same tree I was leaning against. "Just wait here a minute," he said. "I'm going to get Lizzie. I'll be right back."_

_"Hurry back," I said, my head drooping as my entire body slid down to the ground. My head felt like it was burning at this point, like someone started a fire in my head with no possible way to put it out. And all this thinking was really making things worse. Perhaps if I just closed my eyes for a few minutes I would feel better, so I did just that. The next time I opened them, both Lizzie and Pooch were standing over me, Lizzie trying to gently wake me._

_"Zack," she said softly. "Zack."_

_"Hn?" I said with a start, opening my eyes tiredly. "Oh! Hey Lizzie! Didn't hear you guys gome back."_

_"Come on Zack," Lizzie said as she shifted my weight upon her while Pooch got on the other side of me. "We need to get you back home. You're sick."_

_"O.K.," I said, not arguing with her. I just wasn't in the mood to either. So being led by my friends, we began heading back to my den, my head the only part of my body that kept swaying back and forth._

_"You know you shouldn't be outside when you're sick you know," Pooch said as we made our way back. "It'll only make you sicker."_

_"I didn't want do leave you guys waiting on me," I said weakly, my breathing becoming shallow, my legs feeling wobbly._

_"We would have come to see what was taking you eventually," Lizzie said. "Don't think that we wouldn't have."_

_"I know," I said. "It's just dat I-I-I-ah-ah-!" Great. So now I went from talking to wanting to sneeze, the sneeze almost coming out, but it died out as quickly as it came. A relief. I'm pretty sure that if I did sneeze, it would be a bit of a mess. And for some strange reason, I could feel a tingling sensation spreading through my body. Was this how one felt when not feeling completely well? And to make matters worse, I felt completely tired, like I was ready to just drop to the ground where I was and sleep. Perhaps- "choo!" I was interrupted mid-thought as the sneeze quickly returned and managed to get out. Of course the moment, I sneezed, I felt a little bit of my energy drain. That would have been a little odd to me if Lizzie had not taken that precise moment to yelp in surprise._

_"What was that?" she said surprisingly._

_"What was what?" I asked, not sure what she meant._

_"What was that thing you just shot from your mouth?" she asked._

_"What ding?" I asked back._

_"You didn't see it?" Pooch asked._

_"My eyes were glosed," I told him._

_"Then try sneezing again," he said._

_"Gan't," I said weakly. What did they expect? I couldn't just command a sneeze to come whenever I wanted it to. Besides, my stuffed up nose probably wouldn't… wouldn't. Huh. Guess my sneezing wasn't finished. I could feel a little bit of my energy being focused right in my mouth, my tingling nose ready to let loose another one. "Ah-ah-ah-!"_

_"Keep his eyes open!" Lizzie said right before I brought my head down. I felt her pull back on my right side while Pooch had my left, the both of them trying to keep my eyes opened. And it worked. As I let loose the 'choo, I saw a very small blackish thing shoot off from my mouth, hitting a nearby tree and dispersing into nothing. What was that? Maybe I really was sick, perhaps sicker than I thought. "Come on. Let's get you back."_

_I wasn't even aware of how quickly we moved through the forest after that. The next time I was aware of anything, I was lying back in my den overhearing Lizzie tell my folks about what had happened on our way back. "…then this blackish looking ball shot out from his mouth and hit the ground several feet from us! It was incredible!"_

_"Hmm," I heard my father say. "Blackish ball. Did it look anything like this?"_

_Silence fell for a split second before Lizzie said, "That's it! That's the thing he sneezed out!"_

_"What was that anyway?" I heard Pooch ask._

_"That was a move called Shadow Ball," my father said. By this point, my ears were starting to hurt with all the talking. And my stuffed up nose made me tired. As I closed my eyes, I felt something cool and damp be placed upon my head._

_"My poor Zachary," I heard my mom say. I smiled. It was nice to be home for once being taken care of. I felt her paw gently brush across my face. My breathing began to slow as my ears picked up the sound of paws shuffling over._

_"How's my Zack doing?" I heard my dad ask._

_"Need to rest," I said quietly. Hopefully he heard me say that and the next thing I said. "Dad?"_

_"Yes son?"_

_"Do you think you can teach me that shadow thing when I'm better?"_

_A moment of silence went by before my dad replied with a, "Of course, son."_

_"Thanks," I said as I drifted off to sleep._

_(Flashback ends)_

As the memory of me first discovering I would use Shadow Ball came to an end, I realized that that was the one and only time that I have ever been sick in my life, I think. I really wasn't quite sure. There's a lot about my young life that I vaguely remember. I'm surprised I remember some of them at all. Snapping out from my thoughts, I took notice that the robber was standing up and threw a poke ball into the air. "Go, Absol!" he yelled. Bursting out from the ball came a four-legged, white furred creature with what I could only guess was a horn sticking out from his head. Really. How did that not bother them? "Use Take Down and then Crunch!"

The Absol came charging at me, building up speed and power while I just stood there, taking the hit and flying straight onto my back. But that was only half the attack. The Absol followed in pursuit, leaping at me as I skidded to a halt and landed on top of me, teeth bared and closing down on me fast. Thinking quickly, I lifted a paw to intercept his teeth from my throat, sharp pain spreading through my entire body, causing me to growl in pain. Strange though. This didn't hurt as much as I thought it did. In fact, I barely felt the Absol's teeth digging deeper into my paw. That didn't really matter to me at all.

"You know something," I finally said, catching the Absol's attention. "You can do all horrible things to me that you want to do. You can snap my paw clean in two and I'll continue on with just three legs. Your trainer can run me over with his wheeled contraption for all I care and I wouldn't really care. If I had to die right now because of it, I'd be glad to do so. But let's just get one thing straight and I hope you remember this well enough to make you think what you've been doing. When it comes to shooting at the people I care about, no one, and I do mean no one, hurts my friends!"

With that, I used my free paw and smashed the Absol's nose as hard as I could. The Absol released his grip with a yelp as I immediately formed a Shadow Ball, rolling over, spinning around, and firing it with all the power I had. The Shadow Ball slammed right into the Absol's chest and sent him flying straight into his trainer, the two of them flying into a group of tall, metal cylinders. Crashing into them, the metal cylinders made a loud clanging noise, spilling bags and trash upon the ground. Even though I was quite a good distance from them, I could tell that both human and pokemon were knocked out cold. I've never known my Shadow Ball to be that powerful before. I guess me protecting my friends boosted my powers greatly. That or it was the anger. I wouldn't really know.

Plopping myself down, I awaited the arrival of backup, making sure that the robber didn't get up anytime soon before then. As I heard the sounds of sirens not far from where I was, I wondered how the others were doing. I had faith that they were fairing out well. After all, they are my friends!


	30. Cerulean Speed Chase II

Chapter 30: Cerulean Speed Chase II

"Zack!" I yelled back at him as the robber I was chasing made a sharp turn to the left. "I'm going left! You go right!" I shot forward just a tad more before skidding myself to a slow. using a claw to further slow my speed as I turned in the direction I needed to go before giving chase once more to the guy who had already placed distance between us. Thanks to my speed, luckily, I had managed to keep him in sight and soon was catching up to him. It must have been strange to people as I passed them by for them to see a Teddiursa giving chase to a guy on a four-wheeled machine. Initially, I realized the danger the people were in, given the fact that this robber may have had a gun on him. If that was the case, I would have to come up fast and prepare to focus on saving them first. Hopefully the robber wouldn't dare to have thought that.

As I drew closer to the robber, he did a quick glance back at me before looking straight forward again, a hand reaching around to his backside and pulling out one of those long, sleek guns, aiming it directly at me. Of course, the minute I saw him reaching around for his gun, I had already prepared to counterattack the bullets meant for me, focusing my power to the crescent moon upon my forehead. Just as the bullets began to fire out, so did my Swift attack. Mini explosions occurred as bullet impacted with Swift, making the scenery look like that of fireworks, only in the daytime, yet I had not broken my stride in chasing the robber as I charged straight through the smoke.

The robber looked rather surprised that I managed to stand, let alone continue to chase after him after all those small explosions that had occurred. Continuing my chase, I readied another Swift attack and let loose, the stars aimed at the right back wheel. Upon contact, the wheel would have blown and thrown the robber off, giving me an advantage against him. However, that is what not happened. Rather, seeing the Swift coming at him, the robber suddenly hit the breaks hard while turning his four-wheeled machine sharply to the right, spinning in a complete three-sixty circle. The Swift that was meant for his wheel passed by without hitting its mark as did I. When it had registered to me what he had done, I was now the one being chased.

I glanced back as the robber gunned his machine after me, whipping out his gun once more and easily aiming it at me. "I don't think so," I yelled as I immediately copied myself and fell back after doing so, using my Faint Attack to leap aboard his machine. Keeping low, I could see the look of surprise and confusion upon the robber's face, unsure of which of me to shoot. After a moment's hesitation, the robber just decided to start from one end and shoot all my copied clones to the other end. Probably not a good idea having them lined up so easily.

After shooting the last one, the robber slowed down his contraption, looking around for where I may have disappeared off to. I decided that now was a good time to up and end this. Exposing my hiding position, I raised up a paw, a Mega Punch at the ready. However, before I could bring it down, the robber saw me at the last possible second and braked hard. The force of the hard breaking sent me flying off his contraption and colliding with something hard, yet somewhat bendable as it prevented me from flying back any further, but wasn't quite strong enough to send me flying forward. Rather, all it did was bounce me off onto the ground.

I grimaced a little due to the pain, but quickly shook it off, getting to my feet in time to watch the robber take off to my left, which was his right. I growled a little, rubbing my aching back. I turned to see what I had hit and looked up upon recognizing it as one of those signs that humans often follow. The sign was yellow with a black connecting arrow pointing in both directions. An idea formed in my head and, grabbing hold of the pole the sign was attached to, focused using my strength to tear the sign out from the ground.

The pole itself was stuck within the ground rather well. The longer it took me to yank it out from the ground, the further the robber made it to freedom. My paws began to bleed due to the edges of the pole digging into them, but I wasn't about to give up. I breathed in deep and continued pulling, feeling the pole eventually slide up a little. "Come on!" I thought as I gave one great pull, the pole sliding out all at once.

The weight of the sign and having it come out all at once caused me to fall with the pole on top of me. Surprisingly, it was a lot lighter than I had expected it to be. I guess that goes to show you some things aren't always what they seem. Aside from that thought, grabbing a hold of the pole with one paw while pushing up with the other, both of which seared with pain due to the cuts upon them, not to mention the blood that was getting everywhere, I turned and searched to see the robber off in the distance, far ahead from where I laid.

Crouching into my usual position to make up for the loss of distance, I went to shoot forward and try to up my speed to overtake the robber. Unfortunately, my speed was greatly cut due to the sign I had decided to bring along. Aside from it being light upon my shoulder, dragging it, on the other hand, especially for a short guy like me, was rather heavy. I breathed heavily, struggling to gain speed. The more I tried, however, the slower I felt like I was going. By this time the robber was of view, his escape imminent. But I was far from letting that happen. But what could I do with two cut paws and a sign I was dragging? What would Charcoal do to gain the advantage?

I shut my eyes while continuing to try and catch up. I know for a fact I wasn't Charcoal, but even the most un-intelligent pokemon could come up with ideas as long as they thought about it thoroughly enough. So here I was dragging a sign, which cut my speed greatly while the robber I was chasing was gaining freedom. The window of opportunity for catching him was closing fast. At this point, I would need to have grown wings to fly to him. That's when an idea sparked. Remembering how the sign bent when I flew into it, I turned about, eyes opened, and returned to the spot I pulled the sign out of.

Finding the hole, I easily slid the pole back in before angling it in the direction I needed to go. After making sure it was in the direction I needed to go, I leapt up into the air and grabbed onto the sign, easily pulling it out of the ground. Grabbing onto the pole in midair, I swung the sign back as far as I could before shooting it forward. The sign shot forward like an arrow before embedding itself into the side of a building. Dashing over to it, I leapt onto the sign, bending it downward before it sprung me high up in the air, shooting me up the side of the building

I flailed my arms about in a circular motion as I shot past the roof, using my momentum to position myself right over the roof, landing on it moments later as I descended. Turning about, I rushed over to the corner of the building to see if I could still see the robber anywhere. I hadn't a clue as to how much time I wasted trying to get up here, but I could tell I wasted quite enough after I was unable to spot the robber anywhere. I sighed in disappointment and frustration. I had given the advantage over to a bad person who would probably start up his own posse and continue activities such as these. I could even hear the noise of the contraption he rode just a tad. It sounded so far away at this point, yet the noise sounded somewhat close, which caught my attention. I may not have had super sensitive ears like Zack, but even I could tell when something may have sounded like it was close, and it just so happened that the noise was coming from where I turned to chase him, which meant that I still may have had a chance.

Running across the rooftop, jumping from one building to the next, I made my way back down from where I began my chase, eventually slowing down as I reached the edge of the last building I was on. The revving of the four-wheeled contraption was loud at one point as I ran, but then it began to grow soft again until I reached the last building. Again I could hear the contraption grow loud before it grew soft again. I hadn't thought about the buildings reverberating the sound off them to make it seem like it was close, but it did seem like the robber was close every time he revved the contraption so often.

Perhaps the guy made a turn down the next street and slowed down upon thinking he lost me, but he was in for a big surprise when he came shooting around the corner. I knew I wouldn't have enough time to scale my way down the building, so I would need something to lob at him, something that wouldn't just drop like a rock. I took a look around the rooftop, wondering what I could use as a weapon. Not far from where I stood was a round, cylinder pipe with a metal top upon it, just big enough for me to hold. Ripping the metal top off the pipe, I focused on where I wanted to throw it, deciding what was the best way to throw it. Over the top or underhand? Underhand seemed better than swinging it downward.

As I was practicing what way would be best to throw, I could hear the four-wheeled contraption speed up a little before slowing down almost to a standstill. Something told me that the robber was close and was about to make an appearance. I judged the angle and direction I wanted the metal top to go, swinging back my arm just as I heard the machine instantly speeding up. It was now or never as I swung the top forward, releasing it and watching it spin around in the air as it flew down to where I targeted it at. I could feel my heart literally jump to my throat, the one percent chance of it hitting all up to chance.

Time seemed to have slowed down as I stood there watching the metal top spin closer to the ground each second, all the noise blotted out as my focus remained on that top. Just when I thought I had missed my window of opportunity, the robber suddenly shot out into view, the metal top smacking him straight in the head. The robber leaned over to one side as time resumed again. The contraption he was on spun around out of control, disappearing into the adjacent alleyway. Huh. Who knew that would work, let alone actually hit its target?

Sharpening my claws, I jumped off the building, using them to slow my speed down as I scaled my way down the building, keeping as much focus as I could to make sure the robber didn't start running again as I eventually reached the bottom. As I made my way over to the alleyway the robber disappeared into, I instinctively picked up the metal top I had used. Why? I really hadn't a clue. I just had one of those feelings telling me I was going to need it.

Sticking to the side of the building, I peeked around the corner in case the robber had decided to make an attack. I couldn't see much except for a wheel that had came off. After waiting a few moments, I made a run for the wheel, using it as a cover shield as I crouched. Peering over it, I quickly scanned around, spotting the four-wheeled contraption nearby, flipped over on its side, yet the robber was not present. I made my way cautiously from the wheel to what remained of the contraption, keeping my eye out for any kind of movement.

Something in my mind, however, was telling me that something was not right, especially when I examined the wrecked vehicle, yet had not found any trace of the robber. To make matters even worse, I was in a dead-end alleyway with only one way out. So I questioned how the robber had managed to get around me without my notice when I next turned about, his shadow darkening the light. He walked toward me, whipping out his gun as I backed up against the building. It was far as I could go as he aimed the gun at me. In the distance, I could hear the sirens of the police making way, but I doubted I'd be alive any longer as the robber went to shoot.

As he did, I did the only thing I could think of and used the metal top I had thrown at him as a means of shield. Strangely, I never noticed before how it matched my size. What was even stranger was why I was just noticing this while I was being fired upon, the bullets causing the metal top to rattle as they all plinked off the metal top, leaving me totally unscathed. The firing ceased not long after, indicating that the robber ran out of bullets. Unfortunately for him, he wouldn't get the chance to reload.

"This is not possible!" the robber said in surprise as I lowered the metal top. "These pokemon are not normal!" That was his first mistake right there. We may have been through a few battles upon meeting, but no one was to ever mess with us, especially when it came to shooting us. Swinging the metal top toward me, I threw it like a Frisbee at the robber's hand, causing him to drop his gun and clutch his hand. I immediately followed it up by using Swift, causing him to defend himself as I crouched down into position. His second mistake was resisting giving up rather than doing the exact opposite.

I launched myself forward, rushing up to the robber before he had time to recover. Clenching a fist, I leapt into the air and swung it forward, clocking the guy right in the face as he lowered his cut up arms. "Mega Punch!" I yelled out as I hit dead on. The robber went flying out from the alleyway and into the building across from us. People yelled in surprise as he went through the glass and crashed into a desk. That would probably make things easy for the cops, aside from the fact that I was the reason he went through the glass in the first place. "Oops!" was all I said as I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly, trying to pull of a fake smile.

The sounds of the sirens caught my attention as they came around the corner, one of the cops' vehicles coming straight toward my way. Perhaps it'd be best if I ducked back into the alleyway for the time being, at least until the cops had gone. Or I could just pick up the metal top and use it to sneak by unnoticed hopefully, which of course I decided to do. Besides, the cops were busy otherwise with the robber I sent flying. As I used the metal top to hide myself between it and the building to get back to Laura, it occurred to me that I hadn't even mentioned the last mistake the robber made. Then again, I never really had a final mistake to admit. Perhaps I've been hanging around Zack a little too much to actually think like him.

Scary!


	31. Inside the Mind of Skitty

Chapter 30: Inside the Mind of Skitty

"Skitty, chase!" I heard Ted tell me. I whipped my head around, watching the hooded bandits take off on their getaway things. Like lightning, I gave chase, my vision narrowing in on the guy in front. The other two were irrelevant, especially when one went one way and the other went the other, the guy in front going straight. Target was imminent. His head would be on a dinner plate and- ooh! What was that delicious smell I was smelling? It smelled like- why was I still running? Why won't you legs listen to me? I command them to stop! Oh wait. Now I remember what I was doing. I switched my focus back on the guy who tried running over the blue-ringed charlatan, only for him to turn right. I, on the other hand, kept running straight as I began running up the building, turning my head as the hooded bandit sped away.

Eh! I'd get him. He wouldn't get very far. Of course, there was quite a big distance between us by the time I reached the top. As I reached the top and was watching the robber becoming nothing more than a dot in the distance, a thought suddenly occurred to me, a plan of action in the making. And I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about, let alone thinking about. Concentrating on my power, I created a carbon copy of myself. Double Teaming was better to make one go insane. Which Skitty was which when one didn't know which Skitty to attack, let alone the real Skitty was even there to begin with? Now I just made myself confused.

"Have at him!" I told my clone as she nodded and ran back down the building, creating more clones which created more clones which created more clones as they scattered all about the city, one of my clones running straight into a building that had the delicious smelling food I smelled moments earlier. Was it even possible for a clone to eat food? Interesting! I'd have to check that out for myself some time. So I waited, sitting there poised gracefully up on the roof, waiting for the hooded bandit to make a reappearance. When it came to my clones, I had complete faith in them getting the job done, I think.

After sitting there for what seemed to be forever, I sighed in boredom mentally. Who knew waiting was going to take forever? And I wondered what my Skitty clone had ordered in that delicious smelling building. I yawned. My ears were alert. I could hear the sound of those getaway things bouncing off the buildings, making it seem like it was far and near all in one. I wondered how one can make themselves sound like they were near, yet so far away. I wondered how it could be done. And why, exactly was I staring directly up at the sun?

Perhaps it was the most shiniest thing of all for kittens like me to try and smack, even though I knew it be impossible to do. So instead, I glanced back down to see if the hooded bandit had made an appearance. Nothing yet. My patience was running thin. I began having thoughts about jumping down and finding the guy myself. Oddly enough, however, my mind began to wander about to the group I was in. I needed a good distraction from my boredom. And it helped pass the time.

Laura was the first one who came to mind. She was the nicest trainer I could have ever come across. I've been with her since she was a tiny tot. I wonder if tots were even edible. Eh, I'd have to ask the fire lizard, claiming to know everything. But I'm not on him, am I? Am I? No! I'm on Laura, the nicest trainer who- wait. Already been there. But she is! She gives me treats, nearly hugs me to the point where I could just flop my head over and die, feeds me, gives me blue things to play with. At least I think they're blue. I never really pay attention to the toys she throws at me. Of course the toys fight back like they have a mind of their own. She is nice though and gives me plenty of attention, unlike _they_ do. No! I quickly shook my head, ridding me of the memories that haunted me. I swore to myself I would never think about those days.

Where was I? Oh, right! Laura and that other guy who was with her. I didn't know anything about him nor did I care to. If I didn't care, I wouldn't acknowledge his existence, yet I'm still talking about him, so at least I acknowledge his existence, even though I don't ever do anything with the guy. I suppose the only reason I even care that he's there is because of, well, I'll get to that in a moment.

Getting back on track, my thoughts went straight to Ted, the only one in my life that was worth acknowledgement, aside from Laura, that is. Ted and I have been a team for quite a long time. How long, I don't know. But we have been. He's been like a big brother to me, always watching my back and never annoyed by my hyperactivity antics. But really, not once since he's been on the team has he ever shown the least bit of annoyance, although he did tend to just stand there from time to time and give me a blank, vacant look, but then he'd laugh or smile and enjoy the things I did. Almost made me want to try to annoy him, but I wouldn't have it in me to do that.

My thoughts traveled over to the fire lizard at that point, the one who claims to know everything, yet can't seem to answer the most complex of questions. And why was his tail on fire? Did it not hurt him? Did he not feel the pain or was he too busy not to even bother to notice? Perhaps I should do the guy a favor and blow that fire out. It looked quite painful. But I wouldn't know. I wasn't him. Yet it still nagged at me that he claims to know everything. But even then, he didn't mean much to me, aside from wanting to smack that glowing fire tail of his again and again the more I thought about it. It was like it was beckoning me to smack it. And some day I might!

As my thoughts began wandering over to the last Pokèmon in the group, they were suddenly dispersed by the sound of the getaway thing the hooded bandit was riding. Looking down the street, I could see him coming my way fast, like there was something chasing him. In fact, there was something chasing him. And it was something anyone would run from if they came across it. Behind the hooded bandit were a hoard of my Skitty clones, chasing him down the road in my direction. It was almost like looking at a sea of pink!

Figuring this as my cue, I stood up on all fours and stretched my limbs out, readying for the attack. I stood there, crouched, ready to leap at the precise moment and only at the precise moment. It all came down to this. If I missed, then the hooded bandit would make his escape and my revenge would have failed. I counted the seconds off in my head. Why? I had no idea. All I did know was that something told me to go at some certain point as the hooded bandit drew nearer where I was.

Leaping off the building shouting a "Banzai!," I unsheathed my claws, laughing maniacally to get the hooded bandit's attention. Right before making contact with the human, he looked up in my direction and could only scream as I yelled: "RAWR!"


	32. Underestimation

Chapter 32: Underestimation

"Charcoal! No time to ask. Throw out a fireball barrier right now," Zack yelled out to me. I raised an eye scale, curious to know what nonsense he was talking about.

"What?" I asked, making sure I heard him right.

"Do it!" he yelled. Normally I'd ask him what he was talking about and where he got the sudden randomness from, but I'd have to do what he asked of me a little later. I instantly readied a fireball upon hearing one of the four men who exited from the alarming building order one of his cohorts to kill us. To think we barely arrived in Cerulean and already we just had to run into some kind of trouble. And we haven't even made it to the gym yet. Of course, I should have known that a robbery was taking place with the masks the men were wearing. Guess I was distracted being nervous with the upcoming gym battle and all.

Focusing my attention back to the prior situation we were in, I inhaled, readying to launch what I hoped to be a rather nice sized fireball as the guy two contraptions down pulled out a long, sleek, shiny weapon and fired it right at us. Zack chose that moment to rush forward in a random direction, towards the incoming bullets. I had no time to scream out anything to Zack as I picked that moment to release my fireball. Opening my mouth, I spat out what was a fireball of a larger size than I normally spit out. I was rather impressed but how large I could make it, especially since it shielded all of us from the bullets.

As the fireball broke apart upon hitting the ground, I heard one of the robbers say, "What just happened? How'd that Umbreon do that?"

"Never mind him," came the voice of the lead robber. "Let's blow this scene before the cops arrive." As they started up their four-wheeled contraptions, I took a momentary glance to see where Zack was. Now standing in the middle of the road, Zack looked like he was completely unharmed by the bullets. How he had managed to avoid direct injury could only be the work of a new ability I concluded.

I was suddenly snapped out from my thoughts as the first four-wheeler passed by, the second one following close behind it. If these robbers think they were going to get away, then they had another thing coming. Readying a Metal Claw, I rushed out into the street as Zack barely dodged the third four-wheeler that came passing by. As the last robber was gaining speed to get away, I suddenly stopped short where the tires would be in reach and sliced my claw horizontally, making contact with the tires, causing them to blow. The robber, trying to control his mode of transportation and failing, decided to abandon said contraption as it lost control and flipped end over end.

Without missing a beat I said, "Of course, That doesn't mean that my Metal Claw is completely useless."

"Good job, Charcoal!" Zack said from behind me as I straightened up.

"Later," I said. "Those other three are getting away."

"No worries, bro," Ted said as I turned around, seeing him crouched down in that same position he always gets in right before he does his little speed trick. Zack, Skitty, and I will handle it. I trust you'll be able to take care of this one."

"No doubt," I said as I turned my attention to the robber who was only now staggering to get up. "Get going."

"Skitty, chase," Ted commanded Skitty. Before I could even turn my head, Skitty was gone like that, already half-way down the road when Ted shot off after. Zack quickly followed a split second later using his Quick Attack, knocking down the robber as he rushed off.

"He's all yours now!" he yelled back with a laugh. "Enjoy!" I had to admit that there were times Zack made the most worst of situations more… enlightened maybe? It made me wonder if he took anything seriously what with the way he responds in certain scenarios.

"Charcoal, quick! Stop him!" my trainer suddenly yelled, causing me to snap my attention back to the robber who was still lying upon the ground. At the moment, his hand was reaching down toward his waistline, causing me to spring into action.

"Oh no you don't," I yelled as I readied a fireball and spat out my regular normal sized one. The fireball made direct contact with the robber's hand just as he enlarged the pokeball. Unfortunately I was a little on the slow side. I had managed to knock the pokéball out of his hand, but by doing so I helped release the Pokèmon from within. Watching said Pokèmon burst forth, the light took form of a large, brown rat with sharp front teeth. I had to raise an eyescale at this. Seriously? The robber had a Raticate with him? I was expecting something a little more challenging say like a Persian or something.

"You're kidding me, right?" I asked, causing confusion in the Raticate's eyes. "Out of all the Pokèmon I could have fought, I'm having to fight a Raticate?"

"And what do you have against Raticate?" the Raticate asked glaringly.

"Don't get me wrong," I said. "I don't mind fighting Raticate. It's just that Raticate are one of the few who don't have a lot of strength put behind them when it comes to battling."

"So what you're saying is that you prefer an opponent who would be more of a match for you?" the Raticate asked.

"In more ways than one," I simply put.

"Oh," he said, looking like his feelings were hurt. "I see what you mean." I'm not sure what happened next after that. All I knew was that in the next instance, something sharp punctured through my shoulder, causing me to scream out in agonizing pain. Grimacing, I looked to see what was embedded within my shoulder. I couldn't really tell what it was due to it being almost completely embedded, but from what I was seeing, it looked like it was some sort of… claw?

"You should never really underestimate Raticate," the Raticate said with a smirk as I looked up at him. That smirk of his was really annoying. Thankfully he was at close range, so I raised my free, uninjured arm to take a swipe at him, only to swipe at nothing as the claw that was embedded in my shoulder disappeared as well, but not without adding more pain. I clutched at my shoulder as it bled, trying to ebb the pain as best I could.

"Charcoal!" I heard my trainer yell out in concern while Laura gasped.

"Heh," the robber said. "You kids certainly don't know where to learn your place. You'll pay for messing up our plans. Raticate, show this Charmander you mean business."

"With pleasure," the Raticate said as I took a look what was tied around his paw.

"Should have figured," I spoke, catching the Raticate's attention. "That's a Quick Claw."

"So you do know what this is then," the Raticate said. "Good. As you know, Quick Claw allows the user who holds it to strike first more often. And thanks to my Agility, my speed doubles, which means…" I barely had time to register anything else as I felt the claw suddenly go right into my uninjured arm, the pain searing even worse thanks to his doubled speed. I couldn't help but scream in even more agonizing pain,

which only pleased the Raticate further. "Sucks for you, I bet. Now you can't swipe at me with either claw."

"Funny," I grimaced, opening an eye at him. "I never recalled beating you with my claws now, did I?"

"What?" the Raticate asked as I readied a fireball.

"In case you've forgotten, I'm a fire type," I said. "Mess with me and you'll get burned!" At this I prepared to launch said fireball, the look of surprise crossing the Raticate's face. Unfortunately, as I spat the fireball out, the Raticate quickly moved out of the way, leaving the Quick Claw embedded in my arm.

"That was close!" I heard the Raticate say from behind me. "Very clever, Charmander, but not clever enough, unfortunately." I growled, spinning around as I went to fire off an Ember, only to be whacked in the face by an Iron Tail. And let me tell you, you wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of one, not ever. I was completely helpless as I went flying onto my back, but before I even hit the ground, I heard the robber order his Raticate a Quick Attack. I felt the Raticate ram hard into me and even though my arm was protecting most of my body, the searing pain caused by the Quick Claw flared up greatly. I gritted my teeth as I landed, skidding upon my back.

"Finish this with Hyper Fang!" I heard the robber shout as I felt the Raticate's weight upon me. Looking up at him, he was looking down at me, smirking, knowing full well that the battle was about to end.

"What's a matter, weak sauce!" he said triumphantly. "Where's all that bravado you had earlier? Something about a Raticate not having a lot of strength put behind them, eh?" I growled, clenching a paw, wanting to do nothing more than land a hit against the Raticate. Even so, I did what I could to actually try and move my arm, wincing as the embedded Quick Claw shot more pain through my body. The Raticate looked somewhat surprised. "What you serious? You're actually trying to land a hit against me?"

"Nobody… ever… calls. Me. Weak!" I yelled out, struggling to gain usage of my arm. The Raticate only chuckled after a moment of silence before his facial expression turned stone cold.

"I'm rather disappointed," he said. "I would have thought you would have something better to say as your last words instead of that." At that, he opened up his mouth, revealing his sharp fangs as he closed in on my throat. Just as he was inches from ripping out my throat, he stopped suddenly, looking up as a weird twirling sound reached my ears. A split second later, the Raticate was knocked off of me as he went flying into the air.

"What the-!" the robber said in confusion as his Raticate crashed into the mangled up four-wheeler. "Raticate!" Having craned my head up to see what was going on, I watched as a brown star Pokèmon spun about in the air, landing in front of an alley as a red-headed girl came stepping out from within.

"Good job, Staryu," she said. "Let's wrap this up quickly."

I heard the robber tsk in annoyance as he turned his attention to the newcomer. "Hey listen girlie, don't think you can go around playing hero. You have no idea who you're messing with."

"I could say the same about you," the red-headed girl said as the robber reached around for his own weapon. "Oh no you don't. Staryu, Water Pistol!" Water Pistol? That was a new attack I've never heard of before. Keeping watch upon the Staryu, he shot off his own version of a gun, the water small but quick as it struck the robber's hand, causing him to drop his gun. "Now use Water Pulse!"

A sphere made out of water formed at the very tip of the Staryu's head perhaps? I could only assume it was his head due to the way he was standing. The water had a slightly purplish tone to it as the Staryu fired it off. The Water Pulse struck the robber directly in the gut, sending him flying back into the mangled up four-wheeler and the now recovering Raticate whom I'm pretty sure was knocked unconscious having his own trainer landing on top of him.

At this point, I could feel my neck starting to ache due to me keeping my head craned up for so long. As I laid it back down upon the ground, the Staryu came walking over asking, "Are you all right there?"

"Nothing I won't live through," was my reply. Ironic being that I had something embedded in my arm. "Are the people I'm traveling with okay?"

"My trainer is talking with them now," the Staryu replied. "I do believe that they are unharmed."

"That's a relief," I said. "Thanks for the save by the way. I'd probably be mince meat if you hadn't shown up."

"It's my duty to help those in need and to protect my town," said the Staryu, which made me instantly realize something. Here I am in Cerulean City being saved by a Staryu, who just so happens to have water based attacks and currently lives within the city. Even what the Staryu's trainer said confirmed my theory.

"Are you two okay?" she asked my trainers.

"A little shook up, but we'll be all right," I heard my trainer said. "Thanks, um-"

"Misty," the trainer said. "Misty Waterflower, gym leader of the Cerulean City Gym."

Terrific.


	33. Roundup Aftermath

Chapter 33: Round-up Aftermath

**Author's Note: For all you readers who have favorite this story and have added this to your Story Alert, ****or even just like this story in general**, please, PLEASE, review. A writer cannot simply better a story unless he/she receive reviews telling what needs to be done. For instance, if there is a certain character you feel needs to be worked upon to better their personality, I won't know about it unless I'm told. So I hope that you will take this into consideration and get to see plenty more reviews. I enjoy reading what people like about the chapters!

* * *

By the time reinforcements have arrived, I was already making my way back toward my group, that is, if I could remember which way I took while I was chasing the robber. Lucky I was near the alleyway I took to cut off said robber, otherwise I think I might have been detained for questioning, though how a human would be able to question a Pokèmon is beyond me, unless they used their Pokèmon to question me. Stay focused! Was I to go right or left? Great! Now I couldn't even- wait! It was definitely left. And then it was definitely another left after that. Perhaps I'm more focused when I'm distracted. If that's the case, I'm surprised I don't wind up lost half the time.

By the time I snapped out of my thoughts, I was already walking up to quite a big crowd. I stopped and took a moment to observe what was happening. Scattered about the area were people wearing blue clothes with weird blue hats upon their heads. I had to admit, they did look kind of funny on them. Made me wonder what I'd look like with one on. At the current moment, there were a group of blue clothed people over by the building the robbers came running out of with another group of them over by the four wheeled contraption Charcoal managed to spiral out of control.

My attention was caught as one of the masked robbers was being led to a large looking vehicle by one of the blue clothed humans and placed inside. I noticed a Raticate being placed in a similar vehicle with some sort of loop thing attached to a stick on him. Something about that made my fur stand on end. My ears perked up as I caught the sound of my trainer's voice, causing me to glance in his direction. Apparently he and Laura were being questioned by a female human with bluish green hair perhaps? I couldn't really tell. There was a red headed girl there with them. Something about her told me that they would be all right for the moment. So I looked around, searching for someone else.

My eyes soon came to rest upon said someone and with a grin, walked on over. "Yo Charcoal!" I said, catching his attention. "How are things?"

"Not too terribly bad," Charcoal said as I looked him over. On both his arms he looked like he got patched up. He held up what looked to be some kind of claw or something. I did notice that there was blood on it. "Got myself a victory souvenir!"

"What happened?" I asked. "Why are your arms bandaged? And who's this brown star guy?"

"Greetings, fellow Pokèmon," the brown star guy said. "My name is Staryu and I-" He was instantly cut off as I got up in what I supposed was his face. This red, circular thing in the middle was what I supposed was his face since he fell quiet and shied back a bit, almost like I was invading his personal space or something.

"How exactly can you see like this?" I asked. "Is it hard? How can you tell when you're standing upside down? Does your face spin upward no matter how you stand?"

"Zack!" Charcoal snapped at me. "Where are your manners? I'm so sorry about him. He gets overcurious sometimes."

"Uh, it's fine," the star guy said as I backed away from him.

"So Charcoal, how'd you fare with your battle?" I asked him, receiving a sigh.

"Not too terribly well," he responded. "In fact, if it weren't for Staryu, I'd probably be a mess among the ground by now."

"Thank you for saving him," I said with a nod of my head to the star guy.

"It was no problem," the star guy said. "Besides, I wouldn't be worthy to be a gym leader's Pokèmon if I weren't able to beat the simplest of Pokèmon like that Raticate." Had my ears heard correctly? Had this star guy just mentioned that he was a Pokèmon of the gym leader?

"Uh oh," I heard Charcoal say as my legs began shaking.

"D-Did you just say that you were the gym leader's Pokèmon?" I asked him, to which his reply was a yes, causing my entire body to shake with excitement.

"Is, is he okay?" the star guy asked Charcoal, my body refusing to stop shaking.

"He gets that way when he's overexcited," Charcoal explained to him. "I sometimes worry that he'll die of a heart attack."

"C-c-c-can th-that r-r-really h-h-happen?" I asked as I turned to look at him, to which I received a shrug, even though everything around me was blurry. Suddenly, I instantly calmed down as I felt something poking me directly in the head. Diverting my eyes to the right, I saw Ted standing there before me, a claw touching my forehead lightly. Seriously, where does this guy keep appearing from?

"Chillax, Zack bro," he said. "Control the rate of your heart and convert that excitement into a wide smile."

"Wouldn't that break his face?" Charcoal asked. "He might die of too much happiness."

"I suppose it's better than a heart attack," Ted said with a small chuckle as I turned to him.

"Ted, where in the world do you keep popping up from?"

"I beg your pardon?" Ted asked curiously.

"It's just that every time I turn around, you appear out of nowhere," I explained. "Almost like you materialize out of thin air. You're not an alien spy, are you?" That question caused Charcoal to slap a paw over his face. The star guy, I had noticed, remained quiet this entire time. What was going through his mind, I hadn't a clue.

Ted chuckled at my question before responding to it. "I assure you," he said. "I'm just plain old Ted. An alien spy would be acting more suspicious."

"Which leaves me to question if you're an alien spy yourself, Zack," Charcoal said with a mischievous grin.

"What?" I asked horrified. Had I really been living a lie all these years? Have I been an alien all along, living in the body of an Umbreon? All questions of doubt disappeared as everyone turned their attention to the Skitty who was walking back towards us, carrying something in her mouth

"Hi guys!" she said as she walked up to us, the item she was carrying dropping to the ground. My attention was now on the item she was carrying as I was sure as everyone else's attention was as well. Though I didn't know the name of said item, I recognized it due to the fact that my trainer and Laura wore them upon their feet, as does every single human. The reason as to why I was staring at it was due to the fact that it looked like it got ripped to shreds. There a number of small holes in it with scratch marks covering every inch of what she was carrying. One piece of string attached to it was longer than the other.

"Skitty," Charcoal said while I continued to stare at the object. "Where did you get the shoe?"

"What shoe?" she asked.

"The one that's currently lying in front of us looking like it went through a shredder," was Charcoal's reply.

Silence occurred among us as we all continued staring at the beaten up shoe until Skitty spoke up again. "I do not understand the question." I looked up at her, my mind at a total blank by this point. My attention was suddenly diverted by one of the blue clothed humans as they were leading another one of the robbers toward the large vehicle. What was coincidental about this human was the fact that his clothes looked just as torn up as this shoe was, not to mention the fact that he was missing one on one of his feet. His shirt was completely in shreds from the middle down and had dark stains upon his pants.

"What in the world happened to him?" asked the lady with bluish greenish hair as she came walking over.

"Not entirely sure," replied the guy in hold of him. "We found him like this in an alley way in a fettle position. Kept crying on about some mumbo jumbo I couldn't understand."

The robber looked rather dazed as I studied his facial expression, kind of like he was totally out of it. His expression completely changed as he swung his head around and took notice of us. His eyes completely narrowed as a look of sheer terror crossed his face. I don't know what compelled me to do so, but I had a feeling that he was staring at someone in particular. Turning my head to look at Skitty, she tilted her head to one side while smiling and said, "Hi!"

I looked back at the robber as he began screaming. "Take me away!" he cried. "Please! I'll do anything you want, anything at all! Just get me away from that psychotic Skitty!" At this point, I'm pretty sure everyone was staring silently at the breakdown this guy was having, even when he was placed inside the vehicle with his cronies.

"What?" Skitty asked as I looked back at her. "All I did was say hi."

"No comment," Charcoal said as our trainers and the red-headed girl came walking over.

"What the heck was that all about?" my trainer asked. "What did he say about Skitty being psychotic?"

"Oh noodle sauce," Laura said as she scooped Skitty up and squeezed her. "My Skitty's too adorable and innocent to hurt a fly. Right, Skit-Skit?" Skitty, of course, couldn't respond to that question, due to the fact that her face was turning blue.

"Can't breathe!" she wheezed before flopping her head over Laura's arms, a paw stuck out in the air, twitching.

"Yeah," the red-headed girl said. "Which explains why his shirt looked like it was clawed. And who says noodle sauce?"

"It's just a word I use when I don't believe something to be true," Laura said sheepishly. "That or when something bad is about to happen."

"Speaking of which, I should really get Charcoal checked out," my trainer said. "It looks like he may need stitching for both his arms."

"I hate needles," Charcoal growled.

"Considering the fact that those patches aren't really stopping the bleeding," Ted said. I looked back at Charcoal to see that the white patches on his arms were now stained red. I had to say, it was a lot worst than I had thought.

"But then what about the gym battle?" I asked. "I can't wait around forever for Charcoal's wounds to heal."

"You do have a point there," Ted said, crossing his paws and thinking deeply. "If Charcoal were to be stitched now and then battle, those stitches would come apart for sure."

"Well then I'll just have to battle before getting my stitches," Charcoal said, causing Ted, the star guy, and I to look at him.

"Are you all insane?" the star guy asked. "You're not seriously going to fight with the injuries you have, are you?"

"We didn't come all the way to this city for nothing," Charcoal replied. "Besides, the sooner I get our battle over and done with, the sooner I can focus on letting my wounds heal."

"Yeah but how are we going to convince our trainers about that?" I asked. Ironically, life has a funny way of taking practically everybody by surprise. For us, that surprise came in the same answer I had asked my question involving my trainer.

"But first things first, I have a gym battle to take care of," he said.

"What?" everybody around us said as all eyes were now upon him.

"Are you crazy?" Laura yelled. "Your Pokèmon is injured and all you care about is a gym battle? What kind of Pokèmon trainer are you?"

"If Charcoal were to get his arms stitched now before battling, they'd come undone," my trainer said. "And it wouldn't be fair to Zack to take two Pokèmon on by himself. Sorry, but my choice has been made."

"Fine!" Laura said, turning away from him. "See if I care. Just don't come crying to me when Charcoal's wounds get infected."

The small laughter coming from the red headed girl caught my attention as I glanced her way. "You definitely remind me of someone I know," she said, looking like she was lost in thought. "Very well. I shall meet your request for a gym battle."

"All right!" my trainer yelled happily, pumping a fist into the air. "Hear that you guys? We got ourselves a gym battle!"

"However," the gym leader said. "The minute your Charmander is no longer able to continue battle, he must be taken to the Center immediately. Understand?"

"Perfectly," my trainer said with a nod of his head.

"Sounds like you guys got lucky," Ted said.

"I know, right?" I said, smiling while my tail wagged furiously.

"I said it once and I'll say it again," the star guy said. "You guys are insane!"

"Well, you see," I said. "We're not your normal group of Pokèmon."

"Correction," Charcoal said. "You're not normal.

"Right," I said before realizing what he said. "Wait, what? You're the one battling with holes in your arms. And you call me crazy?"

"…Touchè."


	34. Victory Over Fear

**This chapter took me quite a while to plan out. I knew how it was going to happen, I just needed to find the right wordings to make this as good a chapter for reading. It's quite a long one too, surprisingly. I didn't think it was going to be this long! And it took me the months of April, May, and June just to finally finish this. Of course, the reason why I didn't post this chapter up afterward is due to the fact that I had wanted to try and write a few chapters ahead before doing so. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be working out for me so well so I'll have to work on that chapter.**

**In the meantime, we finally get around to the Cerulean City Gym battle at last. Hope ya'll enjoy!**

Chapter 34: Victory Over Fear

"Hey Charcoal, you sure you're all right?" Zack had asked me for the umpteenth time that morning as we headed for the Cerulean Gym. Technically, this was the second time he had asked me, the first time being when everyone else had woken up that morning and I had to at least play the part as well. I just didn't want him to continuously become annoying asking that question. I was already irritable as it was. The pain in my arms had flared greatly throughout the night, preventing any sleep from coming. On top of that, I worried myself sick about the upcoming battle, trying to strategize on how I would be able to take down a water Pokèmon, let alone battle on water. All it had done was turn my brain into mush. So yeah, I had no plan, no sleep, just a losing battle to look forward to.

"I'll be fine, Zack," I replied to him. "It's not like I'm fighting for my life or anything." He remained quiet, as did Ted. I wasn't dumb enough to know that they knew I was hiding the real truth from them, they just didn't want to go about admitting it. Skitty, on the other hand, probably wasn't even aware of the situation, being that she kept trying to pounce my trainer's loose shoe lace.

Before long, we found ourselves standing before the gym. Unlike the last one, which was nothing but a big, gray building in the shape of a boulder, this one looked a little more classier. The building itself was small compared to how huge the roof was. It looked like an over-sized dome or perhaps one of those umbrella things due to the fact it was a striped pattern of yellow and a dark shade of pink perhaps? No matter what it looked like, the roof was indeed bigger than the lower section of the gym. A very huge Dewgong hung above with waves on either side, circling around the gym.

"Whoa!" Zack said. "That gym's huge!"

"You're looking at the roof, Zack," I stated. "Look below the Dewgong."

"I've never seen a Dewgong that huge either," Zack said right before doing as I told him to. "Oh wait. That's the gym? Why is it so small compared to the top?"

"Apparently the designers had no idea what they were doing when they built this," I said.

"Well guys," my trainer said as I looked down at his shoe, Skitty sitting there with his shoelace in her mouth. "What say we get our second badge today?"

"I don't care about no badge," Zack said, wagging his tail. "I just want to battle. Who do you think I'll be fighting against?"

"We'll be finding out real soon," I said as my trainer took a step forward, only to start falling due to Skitty still holding onto his shoelace. However, as he fell, Skitty suddenly yawned, the shoelace snapping back and sending my trainer rolling down the small hill instead.

"What's he doing?" Zack asked as we all just stood there watching our trainer roll down. "Looks fun!" I had to resist the urge to face palm myself.

* * *

A couple minutes later, after taking a nasty spill down the little path leading to the gym, we were actually inside it, walking to the very center where our battle was to take place. My heart was racing a mile a minute as, with each footstep, I drew closer to what I hated the most. I could feel Zack's stare upon me, knowing what was going through his mind. I wasn't that dumb. I knew he knew I wasn't up for this. He just wasn't going to say that out loud since all I'd do is deny that fact. It took every fiber in my being to keep calm as we walked into a large room that had a pool in the very center, a very long, long, long, long, long, long…

"It's so blue!" Skitty said, snapping me out of my incoming panic attack. "I must marvel it for all the blueness it is worth!" She sounded like she was in a trance as he slowly moved towards it, never taking her eyes off it. Luckily, Ted had managed to grab her by the tail and keep her from moving forward any further.

"Great," I sighed mentally to myself. "Water. Just what I always wanted to battle on."

"So you made it," a voice spoke out. Taking my eyes off the pool, they now rested upon the gym leader, who stood before said pool. "To be honest, I was hoping you'd treat your Charmander before coming here, but I guess that was only wishful thinking."

"Don't think I'm an irresponsible trainer," my trainer said. "Of course I'm worried about Charcoal's wounds, but I'd rather have him fight first before he gets patched up. And Charcoal just so happens to agree with me. Right, Charcoal?"

"Let's get this over with, please," I said.

"You're so stubborn," the gym leader said. "But maybe that's why I feel compelled to battle you. So, if you're ready, then we shall begin."

"Oh I'm ready," my trainer said as he walked towards the pool, Zack following from behind.

"Well," I said with a sigh. "Here goes."

As I went to move to follow, a paw was suddenly placed gently upon my shoulder, causing me to stop and look back at Ted who was smiling softly. "Now worries, Charc. bro," he said. "You'll do fine." He's one to talk. He wasn't the one in my position. Without a word, I followed after, fear threatening to overtake me with each step drew closer to the pool. Before I knew it, I found myself standing next to my trainer, staring at the gym leader standing across from us.

"This will be a two-on-two match," she called over to us. "The first to have both Pokèmon knocked out loses."

"That's fine by me," my trainer said before looking down at me. "All right, Charcoal. You ready for this?"

"Might as well be," I said. I was so going to hate this. I also noticed that Zack hadn't spoken since we got here. I didn't dare turn to look at him, for I had a feeling he was looking right back at me, watching my every move. Taking a deep breath, I forced my legs to move toward the pool. Reaching the edge, I jumped, landing upon one of those floatation platforms. I had to practically kneel down to try and keep balance as the platform sunk beneath me, but managed to keep its floatation. Almost instantly my stomach cramped up. "I don't think I can do this."

"All right, Staryu," the gym leader said, throwing a pokeball onto the platform on her side of the field. "You're up." With a burst of light, the Staryu that saved my life yesterday appeared.

"So we meet again, Charmander," he said. "Only this time, the circumstances are different."

"Yeah," I said, trying hard not to panic. "Because I'm going to knock you out before this battle even begins."

The Staryu laughed, or I guess what I could come close to call laughing as the gem in the middle flashed multiple times. "You are a crack up!" he said. "The outcome of this battle is imminent for me. Fire types can only do so much on a field of water."

As much as I hated to admit it, he had a point. I was completely at a disadvantage in this battle and it hadn't even begun yet. However, all attention was shifted suddenly to the stands where Laura and Ted sat. The attention was not upon them, but rather upon Skitty who was walking over to them and sat down next to Ted, whose attention was still focused upon the Staryu and I. After about a half second went by, Ted slowly turned his head at a downward angle, his eyes widening in surprise before regaining their usual composure.

"Skitty," he said.

"Yeah?" Skitty asked, turning her head to look at him.

"You do realize your paws are on fire, right?"

Skitty just stared blankly at Ted for about a minute before looking down at her paws which were engulfed by flame. It made me wonder how she hadn't managed to fully catch fire. "Huh, what do you know," she said. "They are." Skitty continued sitting there after that, staring at her two flaming paws for another minute before taking a deep breath and letting out an ear-piercing screech. "My paws are on fire! My paws are on fire! Put me out!"

Skitty ran about, continuing to scream all the while her paws continued to burn. All I kept thinking about the entire time was how she was able to function properly, let alone function at all. Eventually, after rushing around like a lunatic, Ted finally managed to grab her at one point upon her passing him and threw her straight into the pool.

All she could do was scream up until the last second when she looked down at the pool and said, "Blue?" She went headfirst in, the fire being doused as her head came back above water with her singed paws flailing about. "Help! I can't swim! The blueness of all that is blue is drowning me! Blue, why have you betrayed me?" All I could do was watch her flail about as a mixture of emotions swirled about. At this point, I wasn't sure whether to be afraid, amused, cry, or do all at the same time.

Skitty, meanwhile, was rescued by a large, white Pokemon with a horn upon its head, the regular size a Dewgong was supposed to look like. "Skitty, return!" I heard Laura call out before Skitty was called back into her ball. "I'm very sorry about her. You know how Skitty tend to be."

"Yeah," the gym leader said with a hint of annoyance. "Unfortunately. As a trainer, you should at least maintain proper control of your Pokèmon." Laura fell silent, her face completely beat red as my attention was turned back to the situation at hand. "In any case, what say we start this battle?"

"Now you're talking," my trainer said as he gave out his first command. "Charcoal, use Ember!"

"Here goes," I said once again as I took a deep breath, keeping my attention on the Staryu as I fired out a small stream of fire.

"Staryu, use Water Gun!" the gym leader ordered. The Staryu launched an attack of his own, his water easily negating my Ember.

"Charcoal, throw him a fireball," my trainer ordered. I did as I was told, launching a fireball at the Staryu.

"You just don't learn, do you?" the gym leader said. "Water Gun again!" The Staryu fired out another stream of water, waiting until the last second to divert my fireball into the pool. Obviously this wasn't working, yet it was the only thing I could think of.

I was pretty much brain dead, having to follow my trainer's orders and- "Now use Swift!" Wait. What was going on? Who was using Swift now? I was snapped out of my thoughts upon hearing that command, just in time for a volley of yellow stars to make contact upon my body.

"Dodge it!" I heard my trainer yell, but my brain was not complying. All I could do was stand there and take the hit, grimacing with pain. It felt like an eternity before the Swift attack ended. I had to practically fall to my knees to keep myself from falling over. I could feel my eyes droop, my head starting to burn feverishly. The pain in my shoulders flared slightly as my breathing became a bit difficult. This battle barely got started and I was already ready to tag out.

I looked back up at where the Staryu stood, or rather was standing. He wasn't recalled, was he? If that was the case, then- "Charcoal!" my trainer suddenly yelled. "Get out of there! He's underwater!"

"Huh?" I asked, looking back at him. Before I could even register what he said, the entire platform I was on suddenly began tipping over with me sliding down to the water below. Panic ensued me and instinct for survival kicked in at that last, precise moment. Reacting on instinct, I leapt off the platform, aiming for the next one. I was practically on my stomach as I landed, feeling the chilled water beneath me as the platform sunk a little. It really didn't help with how I was feeling at the moment.

"I'm surprised your Charmander managed to get out of that," I heard the gym leader say as I struggled to get up. "But I'm not going to drag this battle on forever. Staryu, let's wrap this up quickly. Knock him out."

I turned my head as the Staryu shot up from under water and began spinning around in the air, gaining speed and momentum. I could tell what was about to happen and could only think of one thing to say as he came spinning down at me. "Oh noodle sauce!" I wasn't exactly sure what happened after that. I didn't even register being hit. All I knew was that when I was next aware of what was going on, I was flying through the air. Everything around me was nothing but a blur. Everything fell silent as I flew through the air. Everything about me was empty inside. I felt nothing, heard nothing, not my trainer ordering for me to do something, not the pain I was supposed to have felt or rather feel, not the fear of battling on top of the water, nothing, not even when I plunged head first into the water below.

A cold chill made its way through my body as the fire on my tail was instantly snuffed out, yet I hadn't seemed to care. Nor have I even bothered to make the attempt to swim back up. I couldn't even tell which way was up or down at this point. All I knew was that I felt very relaxed upon that point, feeling like I was floating in mid-air. It was a calming feeling, a feeling that I liked and accepted as I continued to float freely, shutting my eyes and allowing the darkness to seep in.

_Bits and pieces of my past flashed through my mind, my memories being the only thing left for me to reflect on as I began to slip away. I remembered every detail of my life, all the books I read as I studied up on humans, the many trinkets in life they bought to keep themselves entertained, all the times I spent strategizing many a battle, finding a weak spot upon Pokèmon I could use as as an advantage. I never had much time to socialize except the times I practiced what I studied upon the few Pokèmon I came across in my life. But all that no longer seemed to have mattered as I allowed myself to give in and accept-_

_ "So you 're giving up, just like that?" someone had suddenly spoke up, interrupting my thoughts once again. I opened my eyes, or at least I think I did. I wasn t exactly sure where I was, but as I looked around to see who spoke, my eyes rested upon the one Pokèmon I wouldn t have thought I d see here, wherever here was._

_ "Zack?" I questioned out loud. "What are you doing here? And how are we speaking?"_

_ "We 're inside your mind," Zack said. "But the better question to ask is what do you think you re doing?"_

_ "What are you talking abou-" I began to say, only to be slapped across the face by Zack himself. The sudden, stinging slap completely caught me by surprise. All I could do was stand there, not believing what had just happened.._

_ "So this is how you accept defeat?" Zack questioned. "By giving into your fear? By giving up before the battle even begins?" I remained silent, still surprised from the slap I had received. "It 's no wonder you re so weak. I m beginning to think that having me captured was just a fluke."_

_ I blinked, my attention shifting upon him as he spoke. He dare think that his capture was just a fluke? That I was below him in strength and power? "What did you say?" I growled._

_ "What do I need to repeat myself?" he asked. "There 's no way you could have been strong enough to take me down to have our master capture me. It was nothing more than a fluke. There s no room on the team for weak creatures like you." All the meanwhile as he spoke, my anger continued to build. "In fact, if I were you, I would just leave. It must be embarrassing for you to be so weak out of all of us combined. Heck, even Skitty s stronger than you."_

_ "Shut up!" I said angrily. "I won 't let you down talk me like this so you just shut up!"_

_ "And what are you going to do about it?" Zack asked. "Go running home to mommy? Oh wait! You re far away from home! You have no place to go. You ll always be a weak-"_

_ "Stop it!"_

_ "-pathetic-"_

_ "I said enough!"_

_ "-no good-"_

_ " Be quiet!" _

_ " -fluke winning-" _

_ "SHUT UP!" I screamed out as I lashed out a fist, smashing Zack directly in the face as hard as I could. I breathed rather heavy, surprising myself for that kind of out lash. But I was so sick and tired of being called weak among all other things. Zack got up as I stood there, a small chuckle being let loose. "What s so funny?"_

_ "That s the Charcoal I know," Zack said, wiping a small trickle of blood coming from his nose. "I was beginning to wonder if you were going to snap out of it."_

_ "Huh?" I asked confused. What the heck was going on?_

_ "Listen Charcoal," Zack said. "I know you may not believe this when I tell you, but you actually have the potential to beat this guy. You re strong, Charcoal. So show me what you ve got."_

_ "How can you say that I am?" I asked. "I'm fighting a losing battle. Water types are stronger than fire."_

_"Then do what you do best," Zack said. "You managed to weaken me for capture. Use those same tactics to beat this star thing. Of course, if you can t manage it, then what use do you have being on the team?" I glared up angrily at Zack, angry at the fact that he would dare mock my spot on the team. I d show him how wrong he was. Maybe then he 'd show some respect towards me._

I instantly opened my eyes, fighting away the darkness as it threatened to overtake me. I immediately noticed that I was still sinking inside the pool though my thoughts were scattered about at the moment. Once I determined my whereabouts and the position I was in, I righted myself, looking right up at where the surface was. Knowing that I had limited air, I gritted my teeth as I raised up my arms to propel myself upward, the excruciating pain shooting throughout my entire body.

_"Pain? What pain? I don't feel any pain!"_ I thought as I swam my way up, breaking through the surface. I took in a deep breath of fresh air, hacking and coughing as I swam over to one of those platforms and climbed up on it.

"Hey look!" I could hear a female s voice yell out. "He s all right!" I lied there upon my back, regulating my breathing as the pain in my shoulders throbbed. My eyes were closed due to the room spinning on me. Apparently my shoulders weren t the only thing throbbing. My head was warm and my entire body was chilled.

"Hey Charcoal!" I heard Zack yell out. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," I answered after about a minute. "Just needed a breather."

"Ok," he said. "I was only asking because your tail flame is kind of out." That s right! That s why my body felt cold. I had almost forgotten that my flame was put out the moment I entered the water. Opening my eyes, I turned myself about, pushing myself up, ignoring the pain my shoulders.

"I have to admit," I heard the Staryu say as my legs wobbled. "Very few fire types wouldn t be able to stand, let alone any. Though I admire your ability for wanting to fight, all good things-" He stopped suddenly as I raised up a paw in the motion of him to cease talking though in my case, it was a completely different reason.

"Listen up," I said, my breathing coming out short and fast. "Five minutes. Five minutes is all I have. And within that time, I will beat you." Silence spread around, all eyes staring upon me, though the humans hadn t a clue as to what I had said. After a minute or so of silence, the Staryu began to laugh, the jewel piece in the center flashing as he did.

"You are such a crack up, Charmander," he said. I am rather amused by your determination to beat me, no matter how serious you are.

"Four minutes," I said, causing the Staryu to fall silent.

"Very well, he said. If you want to be beaten that badly, then I shall grant you that request. With that, he fired off a rather powerful Water Gun, aimed straight for me.

"Charcoal!" I heard my trainer say. " Do your thing!" About time he allowed me to. As the Water Gun was about to hit, I raised up my paws, crossing them in front of me in an X-shape as I activated my Metal Claw. The attack hit, my shield managing to keep the Water Gun at bay, though it pushed me back towards the edge of the platform. Time was short as my vision blurred. Mustering what strength I had, I forced my paws outward and spread them out wide, dispelling the attack while gritting my teeth from the pain.

"What?" the Staryu said, surprised. "There's no possible way. You shouldn't be able to have much strength left."

"That's what you get for underestimating me," I growled.

"There's just no way!" the Staryu said as he fired of another volley of Swift. Once again I crossed my arms in front of me to act as a shield, and once again I ceased the attack upon spreading my paws outward, batting some of the stars back at him.

"Wh-what's going on?" the gym leader asked. "How's your Charmander doing that?"

"When push comes to shove, Charcoal goes all out till the very end," my trainer said.

"Three minutes bub," I said. "And yet all your weak lame attacks aren't doing you good. In fact, I almost find this battle boring."

"Boring?" the Staryu questioned. "You find me, boring?"

"Well if the shoe fits," I replied, scratching an itch.

"Fine," the Staryu said. "I'll finish this battle up in one minute and give you a reason not to view this boring." With that, the Staryu leapt into the air and began spinning around, gaining speed and momentum before coming down at me. Waiting until the last possible second, I leaned myself back, shooting up a leg just as the Staryu passed over me. The sudden under kick caused him to wobble before landing in the pool while I used my grounded leg to push off and back flipped back onto both feet.

"Two minutes."

"That was so awesome!" I heard Zack say, causing me to look back just as the Staryu shot out of the water, spinning straight for me. A sneak attack eh? I had to thank Zack for saying something, otherwise the battle would have been over within the next instant. As the Staryu spun closer, I turned about, swinging a Metal Claw right at him. The attack met him dead on, but due to the fact that the Staryu was spinning, my arm swung back, the attack deflecting off. Excruciating pain shot through my entire body and I couldn't hold back the scream that followed. I fell to my knees, clutching at my shoulder.

_"Come on,"_ I thought. _"Get it together. I can beat this guy. There's no greater pain than having to lose in my situation."_ Now that I had mentioned it, my head was feeling very woozy and the entire room was spinning. I had to support myself with my left paw to keep myself from falling over. I slowly craned my neck back, my eyes scanning the place for the Staryu. My head drooped, my vision too blurred to even see. I didn't have any time left, so I quickly thought about the Staryu himself and what possible weak spots it had. Five arms. It had five arms and the gem piece in the center, which I'm pretty sure was the ultimate weak spot and his face. Why I was thinking that must have been due to the fever. But it had to be nonetheless.

However, that proved to be a problem due to the fact that he spun around, making hitting him that much harder. Not to mention the fact that his arms acted like blades when he spun. Almost tore my arm off just trying to whack him. If only I could get in between those blade arms of his- That's it! There was a possible weak spot! No one, not one single Pokèmon in this world would be able to discover that weak spot in their lifetime. The only problem with that was the fact that the Staryu spun too fast to even get to it. One would actually need to freeze time in order to make a successful hit, that or have Psychic, an attack I could do without.

Getting back to the matter at hand, I raised my head up, shaking off the blurriness that threatened to overtake me just in time to spot the Staryu coming straight for me. "This match is as good as over!" he yelled out as he spun near. I focused my vision, studying the spin of his blades, matching the rhythm of how he spun. Merely inches from my face, I suddenly closed my eyes, relaxing my entire body, and swayed gently to the left, raising up my paws and grabbing hold of the next blade that came, tensing my body in the next instant as I felt myself begin to spin.

"Hey!" the Staryu yelled as I held on tight. "What do you think you're doing? Let go!"

"I will let go!" I yelled back, my stomach ready to- Ugh! Didn't want to think about it. "Because this match is over!" Holding on tight with my left paw, I raised up my right one, activating a Metal Claw once more.

"Don't!" the Staryu cried out as I raised my paw in the air and, with my eyes still closed, rammed it down in front of me, hoping to have hit his center. I must have done so too, for the Staryu screamed out in excruciating pain the next moment. Taking a Metal Claw to the face wasn't pleasant at all. Fighting with two punctured shoulders, a fever, and an upset stomach was even less pleasant.

The Staryu's spinning slowed as we began to descend. I smiled a little, content with the fact that I had beaten the Staryu even though I was going down with it. "And that's five minutes," I mumbled as I slipped off into unconsciousness long before I hit the ground.


	35. Underwater Battle

**I'm definitely behind on getting this chapter updated. I meant to have this uploaded some weeks ago, but complications rose. I like making my chapters as descriptive as I can make them to hold a well-developed plot together, which took quite a lot longer than I had expected to take. That and the fact that every time I went to write, i found myself being drawn to play Solitare.**

**It's a very addictive game, might I add, especially when it refuses to let you win. At least Clock Solitare is eaiser to play. You always win, though it's not as challenging as original Solitare.**

**So without further to do, it's Zack's turn to battle for the badge. Hope I did well enough. It always seems to go better over in my head than when I'm actually writing it. Strange!**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 35: Underwater Battle

I had to admit, when Charcoal was sent flying into the water, I thought for sure the match was over. Sure I knew fire was weak against water, but in Charcoal's case, it was much more than that. Imagine my surprise when he came back up and fought with an unlit tail, miraculously beating down the star thing. Of course, he kind of blacked out as well as I watched both him and the star thing spin straight into a wall rather hard and fall to the ground, neither of them moving to get up.

"Staryu!" the red-headed gym leader cried out. He, of course, was totally unresponsive. I think I may have seen cracks in that red circle thing Charcoal might have rammed his claw into. And where the heck was his face? How could a star thing spin around and not get dizzy, let alone make himself sick? Ah well, I'm bound to figure it out one way or another. My trainer raised up a Pokeball and recalled Charcoal inside.

"Laura!" he yelled, tossing Charcoal's Pokeball to her. Laura stood up, catching the ball in both hands. "Get him to the Pokemon Center! I have a battle to finish up."

"Right," Laura said, looking down at Ted. "Ted, let's go."

"Right," he said with a nod as they both ran off but not before Ted yelled out to me. "I know you can beat whatever comes at you, Zack bro. I'll be rooting for you!"

"Thanks, Ted!" I yelled back as I shifted my attention back on the battle field as the gym leader recalled her Pokèmon.

"Didn't I tell you?" my trainer asked her. "I'm a responsible trainer. My Pokèmon's on his way to the Center to be treated."

"Indeed you've kept your word," the gym leader replied. "However, that still doesn't change the fact that you're a hotheaded, loud mouth, reckless thinking rookie." My trainer wasn't too happy with how he was being talked to. I just wanted to get this battle over with and make sure Charcoal was all right.

"Whatever," he said. "Let's just get this battle underway. Zack, you're up!"

"All right!" I said, leaping out onto the platform floating in front of me. The gym leader had another pokeball in hand, ready to call out whatever Pokèmon lied inside.

"Go!" she said, tossing the pokeball into the water. A burst of light was seen from underneath, the light shimmering throughout the pool. It was mesmerizing to stare at, almost like I was staring at a light at the end of a tunnel. And I've been through plenty of tunnels. The light quickly faded as it came and I stood there, on a platform, in some kind of big, square water thing, staring down into the water, waiting for my opponent to appear. Minutes passed as I waited, staring, staring, staring. Stop thinking like Skitty!

"Hey!" my trainer yelled. "What gives? Are we battling or are you just mocking me?"

"Just give it a moment," I heard the gym leader say, sounding a little agitated. So I waited, waiting for something to happen, which, of course, it didn't. It finally got to the point where the gym leader was fed up that she had to yell. "Get out here!"

The minute she said that, I turned about, watching the water rise. I looked up, my opponent taking form as the water rushed off from him. What I was looking at could only be described as similar to that Onix I fought at the last gym. This Pokèmon was blue and scaly and had his mouth open. Why was his mouth open? "SO YOU'RE MY OPPONENT I AM TO BATTLE WITH?" the Gyarados had asked me in a rather loud tone. "IF SO, PREPARE TO EXPERIENCE PAIN!"

I blinked, startled by the sudden shout. "What?" I asked, tilting my head.

"A NON WATER TYPE SUCH AS YOURSELF HAS NO CHANCE IN BEATING ME!" the Gyarados yelled. "PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DOOM!"

"DUDE!" I yelled back. "WHY ARE YOU YELLING?"

"I'M NOT YELLING!" the Gyarados yelled. "THIS IS MY NORMAL VOICE!"

"IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU'RE YELLING!" I yelled.

"I'M NOT!" the Gyarados yelled. "YOU WANT YELLING, I'LL GIVE YOU YELLING! THIS IS WHAT I SOUND LIKE WHEN I YELL!"

"IT STILL SOUNDS THE SAME TO ME!" I yelled.

"I'M NOT YELLING!"

"IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU ARE!"

"I'M NOT!"

"YOU ARE!"

"I'M NOT!"

"YOU ARE!"

"I'M NOT YELLING YOU IMBECILE! THIS IS HOW I SPEAK, DARN IT!"

"GABALOUGAASHA!" I yelled back.

That quieted the Gyarados down immediately as he drew back in surprise at the word I just used. Heck, I'm not even sure what I just said. "What?" he asked, an eyescale raised. "What the heck is gaba- whatever you said?"

"YOU KNOW I'M NOT REALLY SURE!" I continued to yell as I rubbed the back of my head. "IT JUST POPPED UP IN MY MIND!"

"Uh… you can stop yelling now," the Gyarados had said.

"I'M NOT YELLING!" I yelled. Great! Now I couldn't stop yelling.

"Right," the Gyrados asked. "I can tell by how loud your voice is."

"WHY IS YOUR MOUTH OPEN?" I had asked. Again the Gyarados raised an eyescale, his mouth closing slightly at the question. A look of confusion was plastered across his face, so I decided to change the topic. "I HAVE OVERLY SENSITIVE EARS! I THINK I MAY HAVE GONE DEAF!"

"So then how can you understand what I'm saying?" the Gyarados asked.

"MAKE THE RINGING STOP!" I yelled as I leaned forward and splashed headfirst under water. Despite my ringing ears due to all the yelling going on, everything was quite silent as I slowly sank almost like I got caught in yet another explosion and my ears were muffled. Only there was no explosion present.

Moving along with my thoughts, I recalled the last time I had been underwater, only it involved me being stuck within my Pokeball and forcing me to lose my sanity. Being trapped in those things was quite boring, yet I couldn't help but feel that the only reason for my boredom was because I lacked the desire to explore just how far the fake environment expanded. Then there was those berries. If the environment was fake, then how could those berries satisfy my hunger? And what of the fake lake? How was my thirst quenched whenever I drink from it? The more I thought about these questions, the more curious I was to know how a Pokeball provided such essentials. That would be something I'd have to ask Charcoal about. Another thing I was currently thinking about was how badly I began to desire for air as I allowed my thoughts to run wild, something I should really do less of.

Turning myself upright to stop myself from sinking any farther, I began to swim for the surface, my lungs desiring for breathing in fresh air. Unfortunately, before I could make an attempt to swim for said surface, an unknown force from behind attacked. The result of which sent me flying straight into the wall, a set of air bubbles being lost as I hit hard, even though the force of impact wasn't enough to cause much injury. It was more like being caught by surprise and being stunned for several seconds or so. Recovering from the surprise attack, I looked around to see what could have possibly hit me, soon locking eyes with the attacker himself.

"That was a foolish move diving underwater like that, quadruped," the Gyarados commented as he laughed. I had wanted to point out that, even though I was a quadruped, I had an actual name along with what kind of Pokemon I was. Doing so, however, would cost me more air, which is what I currently needed. "This is my underwater domain where I have the advantage. Speed, strength, power, it all means nothing if you aren't a water type. Whereas mine are greatly increased, yours greatly decreases. You can't even hope to make an actual hit without the force behind your attack."

At this point, the ringing returned in my ears. This Pokemon definitely loved to talk. What's the deal with Pokemon wanting to talk all the time? All it did was postpone the battle. And why was his mouth still open? Why did I even care that it was? It never really bothered me before unless I just never really paid much attention.

My attention was snapped back to reality as my lungs began burning for air as the Gyarados came charging at me, the distance between us closing like that. Before I knew it, he was right in front of me, his jaw widening as he made an attempt to clamp down on my body. Just before he did so, he suddenly reversed himself back to the spot he was in moments ago. Thank goodness for my trusty Detect kicking in. Gave me an idea of what I was going to do.

Again the Gyarados came charging, his increased speed boosting him for extra added power, but by that time, I was already making my move. Readying an Iron Tail, I went and swung at him, expecting to land a blow. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. Forgetting that my speed and strength were decreased, the end result had the Gyarados chomping down on my tail, which I'm pretty sure would have been bitten clean off had my Iron Tail not been in effect. That didn't change the fact that the pain still registered to me, an overwhelming desire to scream being imminent.

"Clever move, quadruped," the Gyarados spoke through the side of his mouth. "I was aiming to crush your body in my jaws and had it not been for your Iron Tail, I would have bit said tail clean off." What was with this guy? Was he that brutal? I was beginning to wonder if he even cared about me allowing to live. Deciding against finding out, I turned to release a volley of Swift, but never got the chance to as he suddenly began swimming around the battlefield, my tail still in his mouth as I was dragged along with. Being at the mercy of the Gyarados, all I could do was go along for the ride in hopes he'd let go soon. My lungs were now screaming for air at this point as the Gyarados's speed greatly increased until everything was practically a blur. At some point in time he eventually released his hold on me, sending me crashing into another section of the wall. I barely noticed nor did I feel myself make contact. All that I was made aware of was the fact that I couldn't move nor when I could. All I remember next I was aware of was my making my attempt to break free to the surface.

Unfortunately, just as I was making my attempted escape, the Gyarados had come at me again, only this time managing to successfully clamp his jaw down upon my body, thus began the pressuring pain as he clamped harder. I could feel my body being crushed underneath his powerful jaws, causing me to grit my teeth in an attempt not to scream. I could feel my lungs readying to burst by this point, my chances of reaching the surface dwindling quickly as my vision began to blur. It was in that instant that my instincts kicked in, the last ditch effort in a means to survive.

Having opened my own jaw, I bit down as hard as I could upon the Gyarados in hopes that he would release his hold on me. Instead of that happening, he began to laugh. "You amuse me, quadruped," he said. "Though I admire your valiant efforts in an attempt to beat me, the fact of the matter is that my scales are as thick as steel, impenetrable to break through with such measly attacks. You don't stand a chance in- AAARRRRGGGGGHHHHHH!"

The Gyarados screamed suddenly, the reason being that I raked my claw across his eye, causing him to release his hold on me to tend to his wound. No sooner had he done so than I had immediately began to swim for the surface. "My eye!" I heard him scream. "You scratched my bloody eye!" But by this point, I was nearing the surface, seeing the lights shimmering from above as they cast down upon the water's surface. My eyes were starting to burn for unknown reasons as I drew nearer.

_"Air, air, air, air!" _was all I could think of. _"I need air!"_ However, just before I could make my last few strokes to break through the surface, I stopped suddenly, unable to go any further as panic began to set in due to my path now being blocked by a very ticked off Gyarados with a scratch mark over one eye. _"Move Mew damn it! Please! I need air!"_

"You insolent whelp!" he said with venom. "Don't think I'll let you escape that easily. That was my good eye! You'll pay for that!" With that, the Gyarados began to spin around, sort of like a wheel, building up speed and momentum as he readied to delivery a powerful blow I knew was coming. "Aqua Tail!"

With a shout, the Gyarados had brought his attack, slamming his tail down directly upon me. The force of the attack was so powerful, it sent me careening toward the bottom. Stupid increased strength and speed! There was no way I'd make it up to the surface without the Gyarados blocking my path. It was like he was really trying to kill me, point proven when I suddenly felt my entire body begin to compress itself, like my insides were trying to catch up with my speed, yet failing completely as I had to grit my teeth, even when I crashed upon the bottom. I could feel my insides ready to burst at any second as blood escaped through my gritted teeth. That only settled my suspicions of the Gyarados trying to kill me, especially when I heard him yell, "Hyper Beam!"

My unfocused eyesight scanned about from where I lied, searching for where the Gyarados was going to strike from. I had only seconds to make an attempt to avoid the attack, yet my entire body seemed to be immobile. I couldn't even figure out the reason why due to the lack of much needed oxygen. All I knew was that my vision began to blur, the effects of unconsciousness beginning to consume me. Lying here, on the bottom of this underwater arena, didn't seem to look so bad all of a sudden. It sure was better than being grounded on the surface above. Here, at least, I was free to float around, almost like I was floating in the air, only my movements were slower.

Up above me was a bright light that seemed to be descending towards me. I had to admit, it was the most beautiful thing I could ever get to lay eyes upon as it shone brighter with its descent. I closed my eyes, waiting to be enveloped in its majestic warmth, a feeling of contempt washing over me. However, just as the light was close to enveloping me, a voice in the tone of a hushed whisper suddenly spoke out. _"Zack," _it whispered harshly. _"You're an idiot!"_

My eyes snapped open at the unexpected insult. Where had that come from? And who was she? It was definitely a she, though my reasons for knowing were a myster- Hello! As I came to, my eyes regaining focus, the light I believed myself to be staring at was none other than the Hyper Beam the Gyarados fired off as my mind quickly brought me back up to speed to the predicament I was currently in.

Barely giving it any thought, I turned, my feet touching the bottom as I quickly propelled myself away from the attack, though with the mass density of the water, though managing to avoid taking a direct hit as I realized that I somehow managed to free myself as the attack landed where I laid not moments ago. Though I had managed to avoid the attack altogether, the sheer force of the attack was strong enough to send me flying back, though not as powerful as when the Gyarados had struck me the last few times.

As I went to recover, I suddenly felt something wrap itself around my body and before I could process what was going on, I suddenly felt myself shooting through the water up towards the surface. My mind raced as we reached up near it, the lights from above shimmering down upon said surface. Had my life not been threatened at the moment would I have enjoyed staring at them. As it was, all my thoughts were focused upon the many possible ways I could break free from the Gyarados' hold and break through above to breathe, trying being the key word as not one single solution came to mind.

The Gyarados snaked his giant snake-like head… wait! Why was I suddenly distracting myself trying to determine what kind of creature this Gyarados resembled? Why did I care? How could a snake snake its own head about something if it wasn't a snake? How did that even make sense? And how could any water type Pokemon have the ability to breathe both above and below water? It was like they… something had suddenly clicked in my mind, an answer coming to light as the Gyarados spoke.

"So have you any last words to speak before I end this, quadruped?" Yup. He definitely had every intention of killing me, as I had made mention earlier. "Oh wait! You're underwater. There's really nothing you can say!" He began laughing out of his own amusement, which allowed me the opportunity to gain the advantage. Once again, I sank my teeth into the Gyarados' scales, his laughter coming to an abrupt end as I tried to forego my plan.

"You stubborn quadruped!" the Gyrados growled in an annoyed tone. "I suppose you weren't listening the first time when I told you that my scales are as thick as steel. You're futile attempts to penetrate them are wasted. There's no way that you can-" He stopped in mid-sentence, his voice going completely silent for a second before a strange, gurgling sound began emitting from him. The hold he had on me instantly slackened, allowing me the chance to slip out and break through the water's surface. I instantly breathed in all the fresh air I could hold in my lungs before I released it all in a coughing, hacking, gasping fit as I sputtered, keeping myself afloat by treading my front paws, finding myself one of those floating platforms to hoist myself onto and laying myself down on my side so as to catch my breath.

"Zack!" I heard my trainer cry out. "He's all right!"

"I'm going to have to apologize," the gym leader said. "Gyarados can be short-tempered if he gets caught up trying to win a battle. He doesn't take being injured too well."

"No worries," my trainer said. "Zack's a lot tougher than he looks. There's no way he'd let himself go down that easy." Is he serious? I almost drown and all he can say is 'no worries?' I'd like to see him battle underwater for that length of time I've been down there.

I felt my strength beginning to return as the humans continued chatting, my breathing slowing back to normal. I slowly began pushing myself up once I felt I had enough strength to do so, turning myself around as the Gyarados came bursting out from underwater. "You… stupid quadruped," he said, panting heavily. "You just don't get it. Whether you're underwater or on land, I still have the advantage. You're still in my territory. All you're doing is delaying the inevitable. I'll make sure you'll pay for-"

"Tail!" I yelled out, slamming an Iron Tail straight across his eyes as I had taken the advantage to strike quickly. The sheer force of the attack knocked the Gyarados back, but I was far from finished. Using his scaly body for leverage, I leapt of to the side, swinging another Iron Tail to the side of his head. The blow caused him to change the direction he was falling as we both landed in the water. Almost immediately as I had did I quickly swim back onto a platform to prevent the Gyarados from dragging me back under. Speaking of whom, said Gyarados was struggling to upright himself, his entire body wobbling and swaying.

"Swift!" I yelled out, releasing a volley of yellow stars. The Gyarados turned, the attack bombarding him. Once I had let up on the attack, the Gyarados hunched over, panting heavily.

"That tears it!" I heard him say. "I m through going easy on you. Now you re done for!" He then charged me, his entire being towering over me as he straightened up and began leaning towards me. "Body Slam!" Whoa boy! It had just occurred to me that he was attacking. Just where was my mind? In any case, just before the Gyarados could slam into me and win the match, I leapt into the air, the Gyarados slamming right into the platform I had recently been standing on as I landed upon his head. The Gyarados growled, snapping his head upward as an attempt to shake me off, yet I had already done moved from where I was, leaping high into the air thanks to the Gyarados height. As my ascent began to slow, I glanced down, watching as he looked around for my whereabouts, noticing that I was no longer on his head. After several seconds of searching about for me, he looked up. "There you are, quadruped. It s time to end this."

An orange glow began to charge within his mouth, yet another Hyper Beam readying to decide the winner of this battle. I was not too terribly concerned with this fact at the moment, for something else was on my mind that I felt the need to say. "For your information, I have a name," I yelled down to him as the attack was ready to launch.

"Hyper Beam!" the Gyarados yelled, firing his attack up at me. Dodging the attack was not likely possible, being that maneuvering in the air was quite difficult to do unless one was a flying type. All I could do was watch as the attack came aiming straight up at me, the sheer force of power passing me by leaving nothing but a small, stinging graze upon my side. Wait! What? I actually had to do a double take to make sure what had just happened actually did happen. To my surprise, the attack had somehow managed to bypass me and make contact with the ceiling above. Was it possible that my attacks to the Gyarados blurred his sight that caused his attack to veer slightly off course? Or was it the scratch to the eye that veered his aim off? Whatever the case may have been, it gave me the opportunity to strike before the Gyarados had time to recover.

Mustering what power I had, I formed what I m sure was the smallest Shadow Ball anyone has formed in history. Maybe. However the case, I fired my small Shadow Ball, watching as it fell straight towards the Gyarados who looked like he was breathing rather heavily, his mouth gaping wide open. You know, he probably should learn to keep his mouth shut more often in come something were to fly in it, like a bug Pokemon or tossed trash or even the Shadow Ball that had just been inhaled. Only then had the Gyarados closed his mouth and tore his gaze away from me, standing there completely still as I began to descend. I somewhat knew how it felt to have an attack explode inside one's mouth, memory recalling my battle against Ted. But that was beside the point!

Activating another Iron Tail, I copied what the Gyarados had done earlier, beginning to spin and increase speed as I descended downward. "My name is Zack!" I yelled out, slamming my attack directly upon his head. The Gyarados buckled under the sheer force, giving me the edge to use my tail to act as a sort of spring as I sprung myself off the top of his head, somehow managing to do a semi-back flip and land perfectly on all four paws upon one of the floating platforms. "And I'm an Umbreon."

The Gyarados fell backwards, landing with a mighty splash, one that rocked the platform I was one, yet I had managed to hold firm until the rocking settled down. Silence ensued afterward, no one making a sound as I stood there, staring at the Gyarados' unconscious form. At least I hoped he was unconscious. Taking a Shadow Ball into the mouth with an Iron Tail to the head to follow was a bit brutal to say in the least. My ears had perked up a little as my trainer was the first to break the silence.

"Huh," he said. "We won."

"Yeah," the gym leader said. "Looks like you have."

I looked up at my trainer, watching him as a grin spread across his face. "All right!" he yelled out happily. "We won!" I couldn't help but grin at those words myself as the Gyarados was recalled to his ball.

"Good job," I heard the gym leader say, though quiet she may have been. "Even though you might have deserved that."

"All right Zack!" my trainer said as he gave me one of those human thumbs up things. "Way to go! You rock!"

"It's all in a days work!" I said with a relieved smile, right before my body gave out on me. I felt myself tip forwards toward the water.

My vision blacked out before I even registered falling back in.


	36. An unexpected Encounter

**Well once again this story is late in being updated. I had almost just finished this chapter, and it was completely well detailed. Unfortunately something happened with my flash drive that caused everything on it to be lost. I only had a bit of the beginning already saved with rough drafts of the chapter already written. So I made do with what I had to re-write this chapter. It's not as well written as the first one was, I just hope it's just as good.**

Chapter 36: An Unexpected Encounter

When I next woke up, it was dark, as in it being nighttime dark and not unconscious dark. Whoever heard of someone being awake while they were unconscious anyway? With a yawn, I stood myself up and stretched before determining where I was. It didn't take me long to discover I was back inside my pokeball, being that the fake lake lied before me. But what I found most interesting was the fact that the pokeball had a night setting to it, prior to the day setting the last time I was in here.

My stomach growled, reminding me of just how hungry I was after the near-death experience I've been through as I quickly recalled the battle I was recently in, which was the reason I was back in my ball. And seeing as how finding food outside it was rather difficult, I turned about and casually made my way over toward the bush full of berries, the only means of food I had that weren't quite appetizing, yet were somehow able to hold me over for a time. As I went and bit down on a berry, my gaze wandered past, boring deep within the forest beyond. Save for the few trees that made up the edge of the forest, everything past them were enshrouded by darkness, a darkness not even my nocturnal vision could make out.

I thought back to my earlier thoughts on wondering just how far a pokeball's environment could go and, curiosity getting the better of me, walked off into the forest to find out. It didn't take me long to do so, being that I found myself staring out across the same fake lake that was made up of the ball's system setting or something. I could even see the small cavern I usually sleep in from here. A thought came to mind, a theory that I had to confirm. Not very often I had one of those, I think. Nevertheless I turned about and made my way back into the forest, walking ever so slowly as the forest began to thin out.

I soon came to an abrupt stop as the other side came back into view. Having leaned my body against the tree next to me to support my balance, I leaned myself forward, stretching my neck out as far as it could go. Having focused my vision out across the fake lake, I scanned about the other side I was just on, searching for what I believed would confirm my theory. It didn't take me long for my eyes to come to rest upon what I sought for, watching the faint glow of the ring on my tail wagging back and forth.

It was really weird having looked at myself from the backside, but at least I was now satisfied with the knowledge of a pokeball's interior design. I then straightened myself back up and made my way back over to the berry bush when, out of the corner of my eye, I had spotted something, something I was quite sure wasn't there earlier. Having slowed to a stop, my curiosity once again got the better of me as I desired to know just what I was looking at. I knew for a fact that, between the fake lake and I, was one of those large rocks I occasionally come across, yet that wasn't what my main concern was about. It was the Pokemon sitting atop the rock, provided it even was a Pokemon.

One thing I immediately took notice of was that it was completely see-through. I mean I could actually see the fake lake through its massive head compared to the small shaped body with small strips of paper hanging from it as I looked it over. OK. It wasn't that massive, but it was still slightly bigger than the body. What really threw me off was the shape the Pokemon's head was in. "A star?" I questioned in thought. Since when did stars take the form of a Pokemon? Before I could question my thoughts any further, the star Pokemon thing suddenly spoke up, or rather... sang?

"The moon is bright on summer's night." The star Pokemon thing paused for a minute, looking up into the sky as she stared at the fake moon that was my only source of light in here. And yes, I did say her due to the fact that she spoke in a gentle, yet high-pitched tone, at least I think. It could be a guy. I wasn't entirely sure, so I slowly approached the star Pokemon to get his/her attention as he/she hummed a little tune following after.

"Um, excuse me," I spoke out, trying to get its attention. The star Pokemon lowered its head and looked over to its right, staring off into that direction for several seconds before looking to its left for the same length of time before looking right once more and then turning its attention straight of ahead, angling its head to one side for several moments before shrugging and retuning its attention to the fake sky.

I knew for a fact the star Pokemon thing heard me, otherwise it wouldn't have bothered to look around. But had I been loud enough when I tried getting its attention? I decided to try again as the star Pokemon thing sang once again. "The stars are high up in the sky!" Then it hummed the little tune that followed as I slowly approached, clearing my throat.

"Um, excuse me," I said more loudly this time so I would be heard. The star Pokemon stopped and looked right once again before looking left. Then, get this, it floated up off the rock as it continued looking around, surely having heard me. I wasn't completely sure why I was surprised. All stars floated high in the sky, so sang the star Pokemon itself. I quickly snapped myself out of my surprised stupor and made an attempt to get its attention. "Behind you!"

The star Pokemon turned around, definitely hearing me this time. Who wouldn't think about looking behind them? It made one an easy target of being caught from behind had one not bothered looking behind themselves to begin with. The star Pokemon glanced around once it turned, somehow not even being able to see me as it looked directly at me and looked off past me. What was with this Pokemon, if it even was one? I was practically standing in its line of sight and it had somehow not been even able to see- oh wait! How could I forget? I was a dark type so naturally I blended in well with the dark, making others seeing me virtually difficult. And the only way for making myself seen was to pulsate the blue glow of my rings via a mood I could concentrate on. As it was, I was quite overcurious about this strange encounter I was currently having that surely the blue glow of my rings would catch the star Pokemon's attention.

And it worked. The star Pokemon snapped its attention directly upon me and stared for half a second before its eyes widened. "Holy crap!" it cried out. "A ghost!" It then formed a Shadow Ball of its own and fired it at me before I could have time to react. The attack made contact as it exploded. I raised a paw to shield my eyes from the explosion, expecting to at least be knocked off my feet, er paws. Whatever!

Once the explosion had simmered down, I slightly lowered my paw, finding myself still standing in the exact same spot. I checked myself over to make sure there weren't any markings on me as a result of the explosion that hadn't seemed to have done anything before turning my attention back upon the star Pokemon, only to find it no longer where it floated. I scanned about the fake environment, somewhat expecting to spot the star Pokemon nearby. When no sight of it had been seen, I began wondering if I really was still unconscious. That or I could have been dreaming. No. Scratch that. I wasn't. Mainly due to the fact the fake environment suddenly disappeared, leaving me floating in darkness for a few moments before I felt myself leaving the contents of my ball, the scenery that materialized around me being entirely different, yet somewhat familiar as I found myself inside a building I came to realize as this city's Center. Reason being was due to fact that I recognized the table/desk thing prior to the last two Centers I had visited.

"Hey Zack!" my trainer said, my attention shifting on him as he placed away my ball. "How are you feeling?"

"I guess I'm all right," I replied as something in the back of my mind concerned me, causing me to continue my search for what it was. It almost seemed like it was something of utmost importance that I couldn't remember. What was it?

Everything all right, boy?" he asked. "What's wrong?"

"He may be looking around for Charcoal's whereabouts," Laura said, having caught my attention. Charcoal! Where was he? Was he ok? Were his arms still attached? Why had I even thought that?

"I guess that confirms it," my trainer said. "There's nothing to worry about. Charcoal's in the best care possible."

"Considering the fact that he was close to being in a critical condition by the time I got here," Laura stated, which greatly alarmed me.

"What!" I said with a yelp, startling them and a few others nearby.

"Laura!" my trainer said through gritted teeth, motioning his head towards me.

"But I have no doubt that Nurse Joy's doing everything she can to get him better," she said in an attempt to reassure me. It didn't quite do the job though. Luckily Ted came to save the day by making his usual appearance via appearing out from nowhere.

"Be calm, Zack bro," he said, causing me to jump and spin around. "Char bro's a lot tougher than you think he is."

"Yeah I know," I said. "I just worry about the conditions he lands himself in.

"It's all good," Ted said with a reassuring smile. "No matter what situations Char bro finds himself in, he always manages to find a way through them in the end."

Hearing Ted say all that caused a small smile to form upon my face, though there was a question that was still bothering me. "So Ted, what's the deal with the red towel you're holding?"

"Wait for it," Ted said as Skitty chose that moment to come walking over to- OH DEAR MEW!

"Hey Zack!" she said with a smile. "So I heard you've won the battle."

"Uh… yeah," I replied, an eye twitching. "Um, Skitty, are you feeling all right?"

"Perfectly fine," was her reply. "Though there's this really sharp pain in the side of my neck I can't seem to rid." She craned her neck to the left and rubbed alongside it, the needle in her right sticking up in the air.

"Um, Skitty, you are aware you have a needle sticking in the right side of your neck, right?" I asked. As Skitty straightened her head, the needle suddenly came out with a pop. A few seconds after that, a small trickle of blood had squirted out onto the towel Ted held who somehow moved to stand next to her without my knowing.

"Ah!" Skitty said with relief. "That feels better!" With that, Skitty had passed out, her head landing in the towel as Ted hoisted her up. At the same time that happened, a ding sounded throughout the Center. All heads turned towards a pair of doors I had failed to notice before as a woman with orange, loopy hair wearing a white dress of some sorts with a white hat upon her head with a cross on it came walking out from behind them, a large, pink, blob thing following behind her. Heh! I said loopy.

OK. Maybe not all heads turned, but mine did for certain, as I'm sure both Laura and my trainer had done as well as the woman came walking over towards us. "Nurse Joy," my trainer said. "How's Charcoal?"

"There's nothing to worry about," the nurse told him. "Your Pokemon will be just fine."

"Thank goodness," my trainer said with relief.

"Still," the nurse said. "As a trainer, you need to take proper care of your Pokemon. You're very lucky you had your Charmander brought in when you did. Had you taken any longer, his condition would have worsened. Luckily we were able to treat him in the nick of time."

"Am I allowed to see him?" my trainer asked.

"Though you cannot enter the room he is currently recovering in, you are allowed to view him from the outside," the nurse answered him.

"Come on, Zack," my trainer said to me. "Let's go see Charcoal."

"K," I said as I followed him in, walking through the doors and into a narrow room that extended as far down as it could go, prior to the more wider room I was just in. Having made our way down the long, narrow room, we turned a corner and stopped after a few paces. Looking up, I noticed that a narrow, yet wide pane of glass was embedded within the wall, my trainer's attention upon it before he looked around the room, in search for something.

Upon spotting what he sought, he went and grabbed a chair, placing it against the wall. Taking the notion he wanted me up on it, I did so, rising onto my hind feet as I rested my front paws upon the bottom portion of the glass and peered in. At first, I couldn't see anything save for my reflection. And man was I that good looking! Looking past it, I could make out yet another room, my gaze coming to rest upon whom was within, resting on something I'm sure was quite comfortable, his shoulders wrapped in freshly new bandages, tail flame flickering gently like it was dancing: Charcoal.

He actually looked quite content sleeping, something I'm sure he hadn't felt in his life when doing so, but then again, I wouldn't know since I never bothered watching others sleep. And why would I? I know I wouldn't like others watching me doing something personal. My attention was diverted, however, as my trainer spoke up.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry that I'm not the best trainer you and Charcoal have right now. I know I'm just a beginner with this whole training thing, but they all have a point. Laura, Nurse Joy, even the Cerulean Gym Leader. I'm too reckless with you guys and allow you to do what you want. I mean look at where the result of all my training has landed Charcoal of all places." He paused momentarily to sigh. "I promise you though, in time, I'll get the hang of this and learn how to train you guys to be stronger so we won't end up in predicaments like this."

I looked over at him while he spoke, studying his expression. I couldn't help but feel proud and smile as my trainer continued to gaze through the window, whether his attention was on Charcoal or his own reflection or off into his own thoughts. It wasn't often that I came across others who spoke as earnestly as he did.

"I know you will," I said, catching his attention as he looked down at me. "You can do it." I wasn't entirely sure whether or not he understood me or if he knew I was doing what I could to cheer him up. All that mattered to me was seeing that small smile upon his face that told me he appreciated with what I said and that everything was going to be just fine.

"Thanks," he said as he rubbed my head, receiving a wagging tail in response.


	37. Rival Gang Battle Part 1

**Here's starting a brand new arc of a brand new chapter up just in time for the holidays, though I actually had this chapter finished about a week or two ago or so. I just thought what with the new arc and all that I'd have it posted for Christmas day.**

**So here's wishing everybody a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!**

**Read, review, and enjoy!**

* * *

**Arc 2**

Chapter 37: Rival Gang Battle Part 1

"No!" Charcoal said, crossing his arms. "I refuse to take that nasty stuff."

"Come on, Charcoal," our trainer said, holding a small cup up to him filled with some weird liquid that didn't quite agree to my sense of smell. "You have to take it. Otherwise the infection will break out again and you'll have to be hospitalized for weeks."

"Better that than downing that stuff," Charcoal said, sticking his nose up in the air. "My answer is still no."

I yawned having watched my trainer make the attempt to get Charcoal to take his so-called meds or whatever so that he could heal properly. Unfortunately, that wasn't working out so well upon our leaving Cerulean the previous day. We had been there three days before Charcoal had wanted to resume our journey to the next city, despite the protests everyone gave him. In the end, our trainer was given the meds for Charcoal to take so that he wouldn t wind up back in the state he had been in since the robbery and the gym battle. And we had currently stopped in yet another grassy field with no civilization around whatsoever. Awesome!

"Give it up," Laura said with an exasperated sigh. "If he wants to get himself sick again, I'd say let him. It's like the saying goes: like trainer, like Pokemon."

"Would you give me a break?" my trainer asked with some annoyance in his voice. At least I'm making the attempt to get Charcoal better.

"And you're doing so well with that," Laura said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes as my trainer resumed pleading for Charcoal to take his meds.

"He's definitely not making any headway, is he?" Ted asked from beside me, causing my heart to skip a beat.

"Not in the slightest," was my reply after sighing a bit.

"Don't worry, bro," Ted said. "I got this." I watched as he made his way over to them, walking a bit past Charcoal as he folded his hands behind his back. "You know you should really consider taking that stuff," he said, turning his head back slightly to look at him.

"Hmpf!" Charcoal replied as he turned his head the other way, mainly in my direction so I could see his expression. He was acting rather snobbish in my opinion. "I don't care if it helps get me better. Just having to down that stuff is the nastiest taste in existence, among other such medicines."

"Well you know what they say about medicine," Ted said. "The more bitter the taste is, the better you'll heal."

"And yet my answer still remains the same," Charcoal replied. "I'd rather this run its course than keep taking that stuff."

"If you say so," Ted said, turning back around and starting to make his way back toward me, stopping only after a few paces with his head slightly bowed, eyes closed, and a smug-like smile upon his face. "Of course, I m sure Skitty wouldn't mind having some extra company around to play with."

"Just a spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down!" Skitty yelled as she jumped through the air, flailing her paws about like she was making the attempt to fly.

I turned my attention back to Charcoal just in time to watch his eyes snap open, turning his head to look at the cup of meds our trainer held. "GIVE ME THAT BLOODY THING!" he yelled, snatching the cup from his hand and gulping it down in one go. "Yuck! Ptooey! Giratina forbid! That's one nasty aftertaste!" He tossed the cup over his shoulder and got up, walking over to our trainer's waistline and grabbed his ball, expanding it in size.

"Hey Charcoal!" I yelled out to him, catching his attention before he recalled himself. "Don't you want to hear about my battle against the gym leader?"

"Another time perhaps," was his response. The medicine's effect is soon to kick in and I would like to be at a certain level of comfort when it occurs. I do look forward to hearing how your battle faired." With that, he pressed the button in the middle of the ball and was absorbed inside in a blaze of red light, the ball dropping to the ground.

My trainer simply picked the Pokeball up and stared at it dumbfounded as Ted made his way back over towards me, his usual calm-like expression plastered upon his face. "That seemed to have done the trick," he said, stopping before me. "Barely anyone can actually stand being around Skitty."

"And yet you're one of the rare few who can," I made a comment on. "How does she not drive you crazy?"

"Like I told you before," Ted replied. "I just find ways not to be driven so. That and..."

I titled my head to one side, curious what he had to say before he trailed off. "What?" I asked. "That and what?"

Ted shook his head, seeming like he had been in thought. "No," he replied. "It's nothing. Just something I'm really grateful for."

"Like what?" I asked before I decided to change the subject right before Ted could say anything, having craned my head around. "On second thought, you may want to-"

"Say no more, Zack bro," Ted said as he walked into my line of vision, stopping before Skitty who was currently gnawing on the back of my left hind leg.

Raising a claw, Ted gently prodded Skitty in the head with it, my leg being instantly released from her jaws. "Schnark!" Skitty said as she did so.

Ted and I both looked at each other.

Then we burst out roaring with laughter.

* * *

The next day still found us in the middle of a grassy plain, only there were several trees scattered about the area, one of which we stopped nearby. Charcoal had been brought out as usual to take his meds. I had taken that opportunity to recount my battle with the Gyarados to him, making sure I covered every bit of detail of my story.

"...And then he fired another Hyper Beam at me, while I'm in the air! At first I thought that was going to be the end of the battle, but to my surprise, the beam missed me completely, only grazing my side. And he's down below me, mouth wide open, panting hard, so I muster what power I have left and fire down the smallest Shadow Ball I m sure the world could ever see as it drops down into his mouth and does massive amounts of damage. So I yell down to him 'I'm Zack,' and slam an Iron Tail down upon his head, thus knocking him out cold as I add in a 'And I'm an Umbreon!'"

Charcoal, listening intently to the description of my battle, pondered deep in thought, recounting said battle within his head. "Sounds like quite the near-death experience you ve been close to," he said after several moments. "Explain to me again how you managed to free yourself to the surface."

"All I did was bite into the Gyarados to suck out what air he had stored in his lungs," was my reply. "It worked too." All Charcoal did was stare at me in bewilderment. "What?"

"And here I continue to wonder how you manage to survive in this world," Charcoal said a little wryly. "Gyarados don t need to store air in their lungs when they're underwater."

"They don't?" I asked. "So then how do they breathe above and below?"

"The lung passage closes off and opens their gills for breathing," Charcoal explained. "Most likely you forced what air you had left into the Gyarados' gill passage, which freed you to the surface. And I continue to wonder how your winning fluke continues to get you by in life."

"Hey!" I said, feeling a little insulted. "That's not a very nice thing to say."

"Sorry," Charcoal said, looking a bit guilty for speaking too much of his mind. "I just need to... I'm just..." He sighed. "I'll just go in my ball now." With that he got up and walked over to our trainer who was currently lying on his back, looking up into the sky as Charcoal recalled himself into his ball.

"Don't worry about him, bro," Ted said from beside me, causing my heart to skip a beat once again. "He just over thinks a little, that's all."

"Try a lot," I said a little grudgingly.

"Chillax, Zack bro," Ted said. "I'm sure Char bro's regretting his choice of words. Before you know it, the two of you will be making up."

"Maybe," I admitted as my ears picked up conversation between Laura and my trainer.

"So,"Laura said, sitting down next to my trainer. "Busy strategizing how you re going to take down the next gym leader?" My trainer made a slight grunting sound in response. "They say the Vermillion Gym Leader's known for his military power in combat. His Pokemon could easily zap their opponents to a crisp. I highly doubt your Pokemon could stand up to them."

"Gee, thanks for having so much confidence in me," my trainer said rather bluntly.

"I'm just picking at you," Laura said, sticking her tongue out at him. Whether he acknowledged it or not, I couldn t tell. "In any case, you should probably train your Pokemon to resist lightning attacks, or at the very least train them to get a feel of what they'll be up against."

"And just who do we know that has lightning type Pokemon?" my trainer asked her, Laura's expression drawing a blank. "I thought so."

"Well how about my pokemon?" Laura asked. "Surely they can learn a lightning attack if we practice battle."

"You can learn lightning attacks?" I asked Ted, turning to look at him.

"Teddiursa are not know for learning such a move," Ted replied. "Skitty, on the other hand, have the capability of learning lightning based attacks through two means."

"And they are?" I asked.

As Ted went to answer, Laura suddenly caught our attention as she had her usual outburst against my trainer. "Well fine then! We'll just hope for the best and randomly find some trainer with Pokemon that know lightning attacks."

"That's interesting," Ted said, catching my attention only to see that his attention had shifted back toward the path we were currently off as a human was just randomly strolling by. Talk about irony. "What are the chances he has Pokemon who know lightning based moves?"

"Hey Mr. Random Trainer Guy!" I yelled out as I got to my feet. "I demand battle against your lightning type Pokemon. "The human casually glanced in my direction as he slowed his walking a bit, but not by much. Why couldn't humans learn poke-speech? It'd make talking a lot easier.

As it was, my yelling had caught Laura's attention as she, too, caught sight of the human. "Well that's some peculiar timing," she said as she got up and ran towards the human. "S'cuse me!" The human's walking came to a stop as Laura ran up to him.

"Yes?" the human asked. "May I help you?"

"I was wondering if I could have a bit of your time," Laura spoke to him. "You see, my friend over there needs practice for his upcoming gym battle in Vermillion and I was hoping you had some lightning type Pokemon on you to help him out."

"I'm sorry," the human said. "I'm afraid I don't have any lightning type Pokemon on me."

"Oh," Laura said, sounding rather disappointed.

"However, I am always up for a battle," the human continued. "At the very least I can help train your friend's Pokemon to strengthen them up."

"Perfect!" Laura said happily. "It will do him some good to battle other trainers rather than me for once."

As they both came walking over toward us, my super acute hearing picked up the faintest sound of self-mumbling coming directly from my trainer. "That voice," he said. "It can't be." Glancing back toward my trainer, I watched as he propped himself up on his arms, recognition dawning in his eyes before he groaned. "I should have known."

My attention shifted back on the mysterious human as recognition dawned in his eyes as well before a small smirk was plastered across his face. "Well, well, well," he said. "Didn't think I'd see you all the way out here. I half-expected you to be in Pewter City by now."

"Shows how much you know," my trainer said as he stood himself up. "I could be asking you the same thing. You started out before me and yet I managed to get ahead of you. How is that possible?"

"You know him?" And cue one for Laura and her never ending obvious questions.

"Know him?" my trainer responded. "We practically grew up together trying to always outrival each other."

"And I've always been one step ahead of you," the rivaling trainer said as he pulled out some weird rectangular object and opened it up. And yes, I did say he due to the fact that the trainer had short hair much like my trainer. Back to the matter at hand, having opened the rectangular object, the rivaling trainer revealed three unknown tiny objects resting comfortably inside.

"You have three gym badges already?" my trainer said in surprise.

"Three gym badges and a total of four caught Pokemon so far," the rivaling trainer replied, putting away his badge box thing. "And just how many Pokemon have you caught so far?"

"The Teddiursa and Skitty are mine," Laura spoke up.

"So I take it that pup of yours is the only other Pokemon you have, aside from your starter, that is," the rivaling trainer concluded. "And just which starter did you wind up choosing?"

"I could ask you the same thing," my trainer replied with a witty comeback.

"I asked first," the rivaling trainer said with a smug smile, one that was really beginning to annoy me.

"Well with the way you're acting, I don't think you deserve to know which starter Pokemon I chose," my trainer said. "Besides, he s busy recovering from events that occurred in Cerulean."

"More like you're too scared to show me in the off chance I might have a Pokemon that can beat him," the rivaling trainer said, crossing his arms as that smug smile of his grew a little.

"Shut up, Adzel," my trainer snapped at him. A low growl couldn't help but escape from my throat at that point, yet no one seemed to be bothered or phased by it. "You still have yet to answer what you're doing out this way. I would have expected you to be on your way to the next gym."

"That's the beauty of it though," Adzel replied. "The Pokemon League is still some months off, so I decided to do a bit of backtracking to see what kind of Pokemon I could come across and capture. And as of the moment, what better way to test their skill than to have them battle your Pokemon."

"Ooh!" Laura said with mock interest. "Are you really going to let him talk smack to you like that? You should battle and teach him a lesson for being a know-it-all!"

"So this is how you operate nowadays, is it?" Adzel asked. "You allow a girl to pick your battles for you. No wonder you got this far already, using her wits and charm to dupe the gym leaders into handing you their badges."

"Uh oh!" Ted said as a deathly silence overtook the area. "That's not good."

"What isn't?" I asked, feeling tension in the air as I took notice of Laura beginning to shake a little.

"What's that you said?" Laura asked rather quietly, yet a hint of pure anger escaping her. "A girl that picks a guy's battle? Using my wits and charm to dupe others? Just who do you think you are talking like girls are nothing more than a guy's tool?" By this point, she was directly in Adzel's face, pointing a finger directly upon his chest. "You insult the true value of what a girl is worth. If you want a battle so badly, we'll give you one. Ted, Skitty, get ready for battle!"

"So who's the one to die today?" Skitty asked as she suddenly appeared out from nowhere; yet again another heart attack barely being dodged.

"Well this should be an interesting battle," Ted said. "Provided he has Pokemon challenging enough to be worthy of such."

"Zack, you too," my trainer said.

"Right!" I said as I took a battle stance.

"Oh ye who know so little," Adzel spoke up, that annoying smirk still plastered upon his face. "If only you both knew just how big the Pokemon world really is. Perhaps a taste of it shall change how you view things. Go my Pokemon." And with that, he threw three Pokeballs up into the air, signaling the start of our battle.


	38. Rival Gang Battle Part 2

Chapter 38: Rival Gang Battle Part 2

Having been released from within their Pokeballs in bursts of white, blinding light formed three different species of Pokemon Ted, Skitty, and I were to battle against, two of which I have come across a few times while the other one I have never before came across. Just where in the world do most of these Pokemon live? I've traveled all about the world and not once have I ever come across Pokemon like them. Then again, the world is such a big place that I had yet to come across a group of them or at the very least come across one or two of them to remember just what kind of Pokemon they were.

Back to the matter at hand, starting with the unrecognizable Pokemon on the left, his skin, I had noted, was a rather unusual color of purple perhaps? Could be indigo but I couldn't be quite sure. For some strange reason, he wore brown, baggy pants with shoes matching the color. I never really heard of a Pokemon wearing clothes before, unless of course Pokemon living in human society did so, in which case I should be more attentive to such things I'm not usually attentive towards, like the bandages wrapped around the Pokemon's torso and arms. While I could understand the bandages around his torso, the bandages upon his arms, however, baffled me. What did he get into some sort of fight that resulted in both is arms being broken? That was something I suddenly had the urge to ask of him, including the spikes that protruded from atop his head.

Having to turn my attention away before the urge became too strong for me to contain, I brought all said attention upon the Pokemon on the right side; easily recognizing the pig-like snout, the tuft of scruffy fur upon its head, and the half-drooped eyes of a Slakoth as it lied upon its stomach. You know it's rather hard to tell most of the time whether or not Slakoth are even awake. I mean with the half-drooped eyes, one might actually concur that they could fall asleep in an instant before a battle against them even began. Tingling shivers were sent down my spine the more I thought about how creepy Slakoth were suddenly becoming.

And bringing my attention about to the final Pokemon standing out from between the other two, my entire body froze instantly as a memory from long ago made its way up to the forefront of my mind. While this Pokemon was not as tall as the Pokemon to the left of her, which would be on her right having facing me, she was rather slender in form. In one hand, she held a red flower while in the other she held a blue one. From her shoulders protruded leaves while atop her head protruded spikes or something similar to the Pokemon next to her. And from her neck down was a streak of color of yellow. For whatever purpose that streak of yellow was there was beyond me. I was, however, more or less afraid of the Roselia that stood before me, my heart racing in fear that it may have been a Roselia that I had last encountered.

"Are you all right?" the Roselia asked suddenly, snapping me out of an in-coming panic attack.

"What?" I asked.

"I asked if you were all right," the Roselia said again. "You kind of tensed up there. First battle?"

"Ye- uh, I mean no," I corrected myself. "Sorry. It's not that I've never battled before, it's just… the last time I ran into a Roselia… it's a bit of a long story involving a cult and a lot of confusion."

"Well I'd definitely like to hear about it sometime," the Roselia said. "In the meanwhile, how would you like this battle to pan out? All-out brawl or one-on-one battle with whom we wish to fight?"

"Um…" I replied with uncertainty, trying to make the decision that best benefited everyone.

"I only thought I'd ask since your trainers can't seem to come to an agreement with how to battle," the Roselia pointed out, causing me to look back and scowl as they were in fact arguing on how to battle and making no headway in the matter. Was it really that hard to come to an agreement on picking a battle style?

Turning my attention back towards the Roselia with a sigh, I gave her an immediate response. I suppose we can go with the one-on-one fight with whom we wish to battle.

"Exactly what I was hoping for," the Roselia said, nodding in agreement. "I'm Rose by the way. The Tyrogue on my right is Leon and the Slakoth on my left is Daniel."

"Nice to meet you," I greeted back. "I'm Zack. Ted's on my right and Skitty's on my left."

"Well," Rose said with a smile. "This should make for an interesting battle. So who exactly shall be paired against whom?"

My mind went into lockdown at that point, unable to come to any kind of decision. What was with me all of a sudden? Sheesh! Luckily for me, Ted stepped forward to answer the Roselia's question, being that my hesitance was drawing out rather long. "Speaking for Zack bro, I'd say that the two of you would be best for battling the other."

"That would seem best," Rose agreed upon.

"Which should leave Skitty and I to do battle with the other two," Ted finished, turning to Skitty as he did. "Skit sis, whom do you wish to battle against?"

"It does not matter," Skitty said. "Either way, they shall all bow down before my might! And if not, then perhaps my adorable fluffiness!"

"She's fluffy?" the Tyrouge, Leon, questioned as I turned my attention towards her, only to no longer find her in the spot she was momentarily standing in. "Where'd she go?" I turned my attention back toward Leon in time to see Skitty, standing behind him, raise a paw and unsheath her claws.

"You dare question the power of fluff?" she asked as she swiped clean across Leon's back.

It took a good few minutes, but once the pain registered, a sharp, loud "YEOW!" followed as Leon dropped to his knees, clutching the area where he was scratched all the while Skitty remained where she was, acting as though she hadn't done anythign to begin with. How she did what she did is still a mystery to me. Not quite sure I wanted to find out.

Luckily for me the awkwardness was suddenly broken by an exasperated sigh coming from Rose. "You would think he'd learn to keep his foot in his mouth in these kind of situations."

"Looked like it hurt," Daniel spoke up without bothering to turn his head, let alone bother getting up.

You want a turn?" Skitty asked, snapping her head towards him.

"I'm just saying," said Daniel as he made the motion of an attempted shrug and failed doing it.

"Right," Rose said. "Well, seems like Leon's got the Skitty and you got- um- what was your name again?"

"Ted," Ted responded. "And may I just say that this battle be something to look forward to."

"Definitely at that," said Rose as Ted walked over to his opponent to do battle with whom somehowmanaged to stand up in the moment it took me to blink. In what exact world can I do one simple thing without someone doing something completely spontaneous? "You sure you're all right?" Rose asked, bringing my attention back upon her. "If it makes you feel any better we could always swap opponents."

"No, no!" I responded. "I'm fine. Just in thought there for a second."

"Oh," was all Rose said as the two of us stood facing the other while Ted's battle with Daniel got underway. Turning my attention away for the moment, I caught a quick glimpse of Ted's face as his claw attacks were dodged with ease. It seemed rather perplexed as Daniel swayed from one side to another, not a single scratch being inflicted upon him.

All matters aside, I refocused my attention upon Rose who remained standing where she was, waiting patiently. "So," I said. "Shall we begin?"

"Just awaiting your move," Rose responded.

"Right," I said as I readied a Psy Beam and fired, hitting Rose dead on. I ceased my attack instantly, surprised that she allowed the attack to hit her.

"Uhh," she moaned as she fell over. "That was a really smart idea."

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"Perfectly fine," was her response. "Sorry. I probably should have mentioned that I'm a pacifist. I'm not all that gung-ho about battling."

"Wait. If you're against battling, then why are you traveling around with a trainer?"

"I may not like battling, but that doesn't mean I can't be a part of it," was her response.

"How can you be a part of battling when you don't battle?" I asked, not understanding what she meant.

"Let's just say that there's a particular reason as to why I'm on a trainer's team," Rose said.

"And that reason would be...?"

"The only way to find out would be to attack me," was Rose's response.

"Uhh...," I replied, uncertain how to respond to that. "I don't know if that's a good idea. I kind of have a thing about attacking someone who won't fight back."

"It's nothing to worry about," Rose said. "Besides, I have a feeling that you won't even be able to hit me."

"I did before," I stated.

"Doesn't mean you'll be able to do it again."

"If you say so," I said with a reluctant sigh as I fired off another Psy Beam, the attack making contact with the Roselia once again until she vanished suddenly. "What?" I said, caught off guard as she spoke up from behind.

"I have to admit, that was rather close, but not quite close enough."

I turned about, firing off another Psy Beam, only for Rose to vanish again.

"Nope. Missed me!"

I turned and fired.

"Missed me again!"

I fired yet again in her direction.

"Valiant effort, but you might want to try over here."

As I turned again in the direction she stood, she suddenly spoke up from right behind me. "Or perhaps you'd like to try behind you."

I paused, glancing back behind me to see another Rose standing behind me. I took a quick glance before me to see the other Rose still standing there before looking back at the Rose behind me. "Let me guess," I said as I concluded what was happening. "Double Team."

"You got it!" the Roselia in front of me. "Double Team's one of the greatest moves to help boost evasion to avoid attacks more effectively."

"I know," I told her. "I had Double Team myself though I traded it in upon earning Detect."

"Ah! Detect! A marvelous move to have to know what's coming. Sadly, Detect can't always show you what's going to happen, sort of like the situation you're currently in."

It took me a moment to process what she meant by that. Taking a look about, I now noticed that, while in the midst of having a conversation with the Roselia before me, the Roselia behind me had used Double Team to create copies of herself to surround me. Only one thought had come to mind at that moment and one thought only. "Oh!"

"So Zack," the same Roselia continued. "What do you plan to do now that we have you surrounded?"

There wasn't much I could do. Very few options came to mind, some better to more effectively use than others. Deciding on my course of action, I responded to Rose's question. "This," I answered her as I fired off a volley of stars, having striken the Roselia who vanished. Continuing my attack, I turned my attention upon the Roselia on the right, continuing on to hit the next Roselia after the previous vanished. After having done a full three sixty in an attempt to try and hit the real Roselia, I ceased my attack and scanned about the area having no such luck in hit every single one of them and not finding said real one.

As I searched about for wherever it may be Rose was hiding, my gaze came to rest upon a nearby tree. Normally I wouldn't have any reason to hold my attention upon a tree unless it was doing something out of the ordinary, but since we were in the middle of a battle, my gaze held, locked onto said tree and wandered up to spot Leon climbing up it, aiming for a branch that Skitty was currently sitting upon. Her gaze, I took notice of, wandered out across the field rather than down at the Tyroog (as I believed his species was pronounced) as he neared her location.

Watching as he hoisted himself up, I noticed that Skitty had moved from where she sat and found her sitting on another branch that was higher up and adjacent prior to the branch Leon had just managed to reach. "Oh come on!" he said in annoyance, catching Skitty's attention.

"Ahem!" I heard Rose suddenly say from behind me right around the same time my my trainer yelled for me to look out behind me. A little bit late to be yelling out a warning, thank you very much. Not all that attentive of a trainer, is he? At least the battle managed to break up his fight with Laura. "You certainly do get distracted rather easily, don't you?" Rose asked as I craned my head back to look at her, the blue rose being pointed directly at me as I did so. "Might want to hold your attention more often on your opponents. Don't want them gaining the upper hand after all, not even for a second."

"And what makes you think I'm allowing myself to be distracted?" I asked with a smirk. "Perhaps it's all part of my plan to lower your guard."

"Well if that were the case then I'd have to say that it's a poorly thought out plan," Rose said. "Seeing as how you just admitted to me your plans."

"Ah!" I said. "But telling you what I have planned is exactly what I want you to know so that defeating you will be a piece of cake."

"And by telling me what you expect to happen is only increasing my guard against you further," Rose said. "Which only means that I'll be able to counteract your surprise attack when you go to do so.

"Yeah but by expecting me to surprise attack you only means that um... that um...," I began to say, only for my train of thought to trail off. Attempting to think up of a witty come back which only lead to a frazzled mind, I quickly spun about to face Rose fully, charging up for an attack. As I did so, however, a bright, blinding light suddenly emitted from within the blue rose.

"Flash!" I heard Rose yell out as my entire vision blurred to the point I had to shut my eyes.

"AAHHH!" I cried out. "My eyes! I can't see!"

"Well that"s what you get for looking directly into an attack at such close range," Rose said.

"Like I was supposed to know what you were going to do!" I pointed out irritably.

"Point taken," Rose said after a moment's silence. "But in all fairness, I did yell 'Flash.'"

"Like I was supposed to know what that meant!" I pointed out again, focusing my hearing as to pinpoint where she was. However, Rose remained silent as I was doing so, worrying me a little that she may have taken notice of what I was doing. Thinking quickly, I took the opportunity of her silence, making the attempt to open my eyes while keeping my hearing sharp. My vision was still blurry unfortunately, but not as bad as it was a minute earlier.

As I strained to rid the blurriness from my eyes, Rose spoke up suddenly saying, "Perhaps we should end our battle here. Taking an attack like that at such close range can do some major damage to the eyes."

"What are you kidding me?" I asked as I slowly turned in the direction her voice was emitting from while trying to make it look like I hadno idea where she was. "I'm just getting started. I'm not going to let this temporary blindness keep me from battling." With that, I snapped my head in the direction I had hoped her to be and fired off a Shadow Ball, hoping that my aim was straight and true.

Unfortunately, upon my attack making contact with what lied in its path in the direction I fired it, I heard Rose say, "Well... it seems that I have clearly underestimated you. I forgot to take your hearing into account."

I fired another Shadow Ball in her direction, following up with two more, one for each side on the off-hand she dodged to either direction. "Nice try," she said from behind me as my attacks failed to hit her. "You'll have to do better than that."

In response to that, I turned about and fired off another attack, growing rather frustrated due to having miss her yet again. And it was all due to the fact that my vision had not yet returned. With my frustration steadily growing, I began forming Shadow Balls and firing them off in random directions in the hopes that I would hit Rose at some point. However, my barrage had to come to an abrupt end as I heard my master cry out, "Watch it, Zack! You almost hit me with that one!"

"Sorry," I mumbled as I rubbed a paw across my eyes to seeit it would help any. Nothing changed, unfortunately. It wasn't my fault that all I could see were a bunch of dark splotches in among the light. He ought to have something flash in his face. Maybe then he'd have a better understanding of what I was through. And what was that heavenly smell that suddenly wafted past my nostrils? Hello! It was so sweet and alluring that I completely forgot what I was frustrated about, what I was doing, where I was, what was even going- Whoa! Whatever this smell was, I felt like I was compelled to follow it, find out where its source was, claim it all for my own, and never to let it go, not even to that crazy Skitty.

Before I could come to terms with what was happening within the next instant, I found myself coming to a stop as something soft, yet firm pressed up from under my muzzle. My eyes widened as best as they could as I realized the predicament I put myself in. I wasn't even remotely aware of moving from where I stood. I could hear Rose's steady breathing, feel a smirk coming off her as she drew her breath in to speak her next attack.

"Rose!" I heard Adzel call out suddenly. Rose caught herself as she was just starting to call out her next attack. "That's enough. You too, Daniel. This battle's ours."

I felt Rose remove her rose as I overheard Ted commenting on his battle with Daniel. "I have to admit," Rose said, drawing my attention back upon her. "You're a pretty decent fighter. The way you thought your way out of being encircled was pretty impressive."

"Uh... thanks," I said. "Your fighting style was't so bad either though blinding me was a bit over the top."

"Yeah," Rose said sounding not too thrilled about that. "I'm terribly sorry about that. I should have made sure I was at least a couple feet back. How's your vision? Any better?"

"Not really," I replied. "Everything's kinda splotchy."

"Oh dear!" Rose said with concern. "I hope your eyes aren't too badly damaged."

"Me either."

"Nonsense," Ted said suddenly from beside me, causing me to go stiff for a moment. "If it's temporary blindness, it'll be a piece of cake for me to fix."

I felt Ted's claws touching various spots around my eyes and before I knew it, all the splotchiness had cleared asmy vision had returned. "Thanks, Ted," I said with a relieved smile. "I don't know what you did, but I wouldn't have known what to do without you."

"Glad to be of service," Ted said as I turned my attention back toward the tree to see how Skitty's battle fared, only to be surprised by what I saw. All the way at the very top of the tree was Leon who was clinging to a branch looking down like he had no idea how he got up there to begin with.

"Somebody help me!" he cried out, catching the attention of the humans. I stared blankly up at him, my mind trying to register something that was missing. I automatically lowered my head down to the bottom of the tree to see Skitty sitting there looking up.

"Silly Tyrouge!" she said. "Skitties can't climb trees!"

* * *

After doing a bit of coaxing from the humans to get Leon to climb down, Adzel managed to recall him to his pokeball seeing as how he refused to come down any further since Skitty sat there watching him. Once Leon was safely back in his pokeball did the humans exchange some words. I took that opportunity to have some words of my own with Rose. "So explain to me," I said to her. "You never once called out an attack that would actually do some sort of damage to me yet I feel drained having barely done anything other than waste my attacks. How exactly were you able to tire me out so quickly?"

"I'm afraid that's a secret I can't tell," Rose said with a smile and a wink. "But what I will leave you with is a bit of advice. Always remember that the key to winning any battle is that having a good offense can be made into a having a better defense while vice versa a good defense can be made into a better offense."

"Huh?" I asked, not sure by what she meant.

All Rose did was chuckle. "Slow this one is, isn't he?"

"I'm sure with some thought he'll bound to get it," Ted said. "Some day."

"Uh... right," I said, unsure of what either one of them was talking about as our attention was diverted toward our trainers; Adzel making his way over towards us.

"Finish up, Rose," he said. "We're moving out." I could see my trainer behind him not looking too thrilled between whatever it was they talked about. Adzel pulled out his pokeball and enlarged it as Rose turned to us once more.

"Well it was a pleasure getting to battle against you, Zack," she said. "I hope you can figure out my little advice and look forward to wehn we next battle."

"Yeah," I said. "Same here."

"And perhaps then you could tell me the story of the Roselia cult you ran into," Rose said. "I'd definitely like to hear about that enocounter."

"It'll definitely be a story for you to look forward to," I said as Rose was recalled into her pokeball. Adzel then placed her ball back on his belt and began walking off with Ted and I watching after.

"Adzel!" I heard my trainer call out to him. "Some day I wil beat you. You'll see. I'll train my pokemon to be the strongest they can be and then when next we meet, I'll be strong enough to beat you."

In response to that, Adzel raised up his right arm without turning around and gave my master a farewell salute as he continued walking off to wherever he was originally going. I turned my attention towards Ted after a few moments of silence as he exhaled an exhausted sigh. "You all right there, Ted?" I asked.

"A bit,"was his response. "Just need a moment to rest. That battle certainly took its toll on me."

"Yeah," I said in agreement. "They're pretty strong in their own way."

"It's not that they were strong, Zack bro," Ted stated. "They used what they were good at to their advantage and overwhelmed us in the end. A sure fine lesson to learn from them if I do say so myself."

"I guess," I said nonchantly as I turned my head to the other side of me to see Skitty standing there, looking like something was bothering by the way she kept turning her head from one side to another every few seconds. "Are you all right there Skitty? Is there something troubling you?"

"I'm not sure," Skitty answered. "There's something about that guy that's bothering me."

"Like what?"

"Not sure," Skitty replied again, falling silent for a moment. "What did that guy say his name was?"

"I believe his name was Adzel," I told her. "Right, Ted?"

"You would know, Zack bro," Ted replied with a shrug.

"Right," I said as I looked back at Skitty. "Why do you want to know anyway?"

"I don't know," Skitty replied. "I feel like there's this sudden urge that I have to destroy him." She paused for a moment. "No! That I must destroy him." She slowly brought her head back to into an upright position and stared after Adzel who had already walked a good distance from us as she began walking in his his direction like she was in a trance. "Must. Destroy. Adzel!"

"Uh, Skitty?" I said after seeing what I wasn't entirely sure I saw.

"Huh?" Skitty asked, snapping out of her sudden trance. "What? Where am I? What's going on?" She looked back at me and smiled. "Ah! Zack! Ted! How are you both doing?"

"Uh... we're doing all right?" I said in question. Honestly, I wasn't all entirely sure I was all right at this point.

"That's good!" she said. "Well, we best get ourselves a move on. Don't want to waste the day staying around here now, do we?" With that, Skitty walked past us heading straight back to our trainers who were just finishing packing their belongings.

"Let me guess," I said to Ted after a minute. "Typical Skitty?"

"Don't know," Ted replied. "That's the first time she's even freaked me out a little."

Huh?


End file.
